Quasar. Composite image of the quasar RX J1131-1231 made from combining data obtained by the Chandra X-ray Observatory (pink) and Hubble Space Telesco

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Quasar. Composite image of the quasar RX J1131-1231 made from combining data obtained by the Chandra X-ray Observatory (pink) and Hubble Space Telescope (red ,green and blue). Quasars are galaxies that are very distant but very luminous, so they appear star-like from Earth. The source of light appears concentrated in the nucleus, and is thought to be related to a central supermassive black hole. The Chandra data was used along with data from ESA's XMM-Newton to directly measure the spin of the supermassive black hole powering this quasar. At a distance of 6 billion light years from Earth, this is the most distant black hole where such a measurement has been made. Imaged on 28th November 2009.

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Size: 3363px × 2676px
Photo credit: © X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Michigan/R.C.Reis et al; Optical: NASA/STScI/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

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