Hubble image archive
M31 Halo Radial Velocity
This diagram shows the light from a background quasar passing through the vast, gaseous halo around the neighboring Andromeda galaxy (M31), as spectroscopically measured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The colored regions show absorption from two components that make up the halo....
- Date
- Jan 1, 2020
- Mission
- Hubble Space Telescope
- Archive ID
- hubblesite-images-2020-46-4736-image
This diagram shows the light from a background quasar passing through the vast, gaseous halo around the neighboring Andromeda galaxy (M31), as spectroscopically measured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The colored regions show absorption from two components that make up the halo. For ionized silicon, a significant absorption is shown in both plots. The more highly ionized carbon is absorbed by only one component. Astronomers can tell the two components apart because their line-of-sight motions, known as radial velocity, cause a Doppler shift that changes the wavelength of light being absorbed.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and E. Wheatley (STScI)More Images From This Period
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Source
Image and source material are credited to the official mission archive linked below.
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