astronomy Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, g ...

, a Lyman-alpha blob (LAB) is a huge concentration of a gas emitting the Lyman-alpha emission line. LABs are some of the largest known individual objects in the

Universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the univers ...

. Some of these gaseous structures are more than 400,000

light year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 trillion kilometers (), or 5.88 trillion miles ().One trillion here is taken to be 1012 ...

s across. So far they have only been found in the high-

redshift In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and simultaneous increase in fr ...

universe because of the

ultraviolet Ultraviolet (UV) is a form of electromagnetic radiation with wavelength from 10 nm (with a corresponding frequency around 30 PHz) to 400 nm (750 THz), shorter than that of visible light, but longer than X-rays. UV radiation ...

nature of the Lyman-alpha emission line. Since

Earth's atmosphere The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing fo ...

is very effective at filtering out UV

photon A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they alwa ...

s, the Lyman-alpha photons must be redshifted in order to be transmitted through the atmosphere. The most famous Lyman-alpha blobs were discovered in 2000 by Steidel et al. Matsuda et al., using the

Subaru Telescope is the telescope of the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan, located at the Mauna Kea Observatory on Hawaii. It is named after the open star cluster known in English as the Pleiades. It had the largest monolithic primary mirror in t ...

of the

National Astronomical Observatory of Japan The (NAOJ) is an astronomical research organisation comprising several facilities in Japan, as well as an observatory in Hawaii and Chile. It was established in 1988 as an amalgamation of three existing research organizations - the Tokyo Astro ...

extended the search for LABs and found over 30 new LABs in the original field of Steidel et al., although they were all smaller than the originals. These LABs form a structure which is more than 200 million light-years in extent. It is currently unknown whether LABs trace overdensities of galaxies in the high-redshift universe (as high redshift radio galaxies—which also have extended Lyman-alpha halos—do, for example), nor which mechanism produces the Lyman-alpha emission line, or how the LABs are connected to the surrounding galaxies. Lyman-alpha blobs may hold valuable clues to determine how galaxies are formed. The most massive Lyman-alpha blobs have been discovered by Tristan Friedrich et al. (2021), Steidel et al. (2000), Francis et al. (2001), Matsuda et al. (2004), Dey et al. (2005), Nilsson et al. (2006), and Smith & Jarvis et al. (2007).

Examples

* Himiko * LAB-1 * EQ J221734.0+001701, the ''SSA22 Protocluster'' *

Ton 618 TON 618 (short for Tonantzintla 618) is a hyperluminous, broad-absorption-line, radio-loud quasar and Lyman-alpha blob located near the border of the constellations Canes Venatici and Coma Berenices, with the projected comoving distance of app ...

, hyperluminous quasar powering a Lyman-alpha blob; also possesses one of the most massive black holes known.

Notes

{{reflist Astronomical spectroscopy Intergalactic media Large-scale structure of the cosmos Articles containing video clips

Examples

See also

Notes