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Hidden Black Holes Revealed in GOODS Field
The combined power of NASA's Great Observatories - the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope - have been combined to find a hidden population of supermassive black holes in the universe. It took the penetrating view of Spitzer to finally uncover the black holes and their surrounding galaxies.
All these space telescopes peered across 13 billion light-years of space into a small region of dark sky (called the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey field, or the GOODS field for short) that contains many thousands of galaxies.
Comparing visible light and X-ray views of this region, astronomers pinpointed X-ray sources that are supermassive black holes in young galaxies which largely existed when the universe was half its present age. But the telltale X-ray glow from other sources didn't have any obvious host galaxies until Spitzer uncovered them. In this view the X-ray data is colored blue and the Spitzer images are colored red.
[Top and Bottom Left] - A Hubble Space Telescope deep view of two small portions of the GOODS field uncovers some of the faintest galaxies ever seen. But at the center of each image is the X-ray glow from heated material falling into a million- or billion-solar mass black hole - as seen by Chandra - which does not have any visible-light counterpart in either field.
[Top and Bottom Right] - The Spitzer Space Telescope's infrared view of the same two regions of the GOODS field uncovers the glow of a powerful active galactic nucleus in both views. The nucleus is either shrouded in dust, or is at such a great distance that all of its light has been stretched into infrared wavelengths by the universe's expansion.
About the Object
- R.A. PositionR.A. PositionRight ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.03h 32m 30.0s
- Dec. PositionDec. PositionDeclination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.-27° 48' 20.0"
- ConstellationConstellationOne of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.Fornax
About the Data
- InstrumentInstrumentThe science instrument used to produce the data.HST>ACS/WFC and CXO>ACIS (left), and SST>IRAC (right)
- Exposure DatesExposure DatesThe date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.July 2002 - Feb 2003 (ACS/WFC); October - November 1999; and May -June, and December 2000 (ACIS); February 2004 (IRAC)
- FiltersFiltersThe camera filters that were used in the science observations.ACS/WFC: F435W (B), F606W (V), F775W (i), and F850LP (z) ACIS: 0.5-2keV, 2-4keV, and 4-8keV IRAC: 3.6 microns, 4.5microns , 5.8 microns, and 8 microns
- Object NameObject NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.GOODS, Chandra Deep Field - South
- Object DescriptionObject DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.Deep Survey field
- Release DateJune 1, 2004
- Science ReleaseSpitzer Leads NASA’s Great Observatories to Uncover Black Holes, Other Hidden Objects in the Distant Universe
- Credit
Related Images & Videos
Instrument Comparison of 1/200 of the Full GOODS Fields
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HUDF: If Human Eyes Could See in the Way that Spitzer Can See
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Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
