I went looking for a quasar and this looks to be part of the distant galaxy, in single exposures it looks slightly eliptical. it is much brighter than surrounding stars especially if it’s behind this other galaxy.
Hi Joshua,
One way to find quasars (also known as QSOs = “quasi-stellar objects”) - is to turn on the “DESI DR1 spectra” layer, and look for blue-circled objects – eg, in this view –
The ones we select for DESI observations tend to be “blue dots”. If you look at the spectrum for that one, you’ll see the classic quasar signatures of a “blue continuum” (downward-sloping spectrum) and “broad emission lines”, (eg, the bump labelled C IV) which come from electrons dropping from one orbit to another and emitting a specific wavelength of light, but broadened because the gas it’s coming from is very hot, so some atoms are moving toward us and others away, so the “line” becomes Doppler-shifted to be wider.
There are interesting connections to your other thread about colors!
cheers,
dustin
1 Like