NASA's Swift Finds 'Missing' Active Galaxies
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- Visualizations by:
- Scott Wiessinger
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- Written by:
- Francis Reddy
- View full credits
Most large galaxies contain a giant central black hole. In an active galaxy, matter falling toward the supermassive black hole powers high-energy emissions so intense that two classes of active galaxies, quasars and blazars, rank as the most luminous objects in the universe. Thick clouds of dust and gas near the central black hole screens out ultraviolet, optical and low-energy (or soft) X-ray light. Although there are many different types of active galaxy, astronomers explain the different observed properties based on how the galaxy angles into our line of sight. We view the brightest ones nearly face on, but as the angle increases, the surrounding ring of gas and dust absorbs increasing amounts of the black hole's emissions.

A newfound population of heavily absorbed active galaxies (orange curve) is thought to make the greatest contribution to the cosmic X-ray background (light blue). Both have similar spectral shapes and peak at similar energies. Adding in the known contributions from less-absorbed active galaxies (yellow and purple), appears to fully account for the background.

A newfound population of heavily absorbed active galaxies (orange curve) is thought to make the greatest contribution to the cosmic X-ray background (light blue). Both have similar spectral shapes and peak at similar energies. Adding in the known contributions from less-absorbed active galaxies (yellow and purple), appears to fully account for the background. No Labels
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Credits
Please give credit for this item to:
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center. However, each image should be credited as indicated above.
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Animators
- Scott Wiessinger (KBR Wyle Services, LLC) [Lead]
- Chris Smith (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
- Donna Cox (AVL NCSA/University of Illinois)
- Michael McClare (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Graphics
- Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park)
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Science writer
- Francis Reddy (University of Maryland College Park) [Lead]
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Video editor
- Scott Wiessinger (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Scientists
- Davide Burlon (Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics)
- Marco Ajello (SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory)
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Producer
- Scott Wiessinger (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
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Narrator
- Scott Wiessinger (KBR Wyle Services, LLC)
Missions
This visualization is related to the following missions:Series
This visualization can be found in the following series:Tapes
This visualization originally appeared on the following tapes:-
Swift Survey Finds 'Missing' Active Galaxies
(ID: 2011009)
Thursday, January 20, 2011 at 5:00AM
Produced by - Robert Crippen
Datasets used in this visualization
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Swift
ID: 217
Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.