A Japanese team of astronomers, Including Masamune Oguri at Kavli IPMU, has used the Subaru Telescope to observe a distant gravitationally-lensed quasar and probed an active galactic nucleus in its central region. Looking through multiple sight lines, the astronomers obtained a 3-D view of the quasar and discovered complex small structures inside outflows from the galactic nucleus. These outflows will spread widely and eventually affect the evolution of the host galaxy.
The research paper on which this release is based was published on-line in the January 15, 2013 edition of The Astronomical Journal: T. Misawa et al., “Spectroscopy along Multiple, Lensed Sight Lines through Outflowing Winds in the Quasar SDSS J1029+2623″, vol. 145, issue 2, article id. 48 (2013).
This research was supported by the following:
- Special Postdoctoral Research Program of RIKEN, the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (23740148, 23740161)
- Shinshu University Research Grant for Exploratory Research by Young Scientists
- The FIRST program “Subaru Measurements of Images and Redshifts (SuMIRe)”
- World Premier International Research Center Initiative (WPI Initiative), MEXT, Japan
- JAXA International Top Young Fellowship
Read more in the Subaru Telescope’s web page
