Observational Studies of High Redshift Quasars

高红移类星体的观测研究

• 批准号: 9415574
• 负责人: Maarten Schmidt
• 金额: $ 18.9万
• 依托单位: California Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 1994
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1994-11-15 至 1997-10-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9415574&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Observational; Studies; Redshift; Quasars

ABSTRACT AST 94-15574 SCHMIDT, Maarten This grant will continue systematic surveys of quasars of very large redshifts, in order to explore their properties in the first few billion years after the Big Bang. Because quasars are highly luminous, they can be observed to larger distances (and so greater ages, when the Universe was much younger) than any other astronomical object. Since quasars optically look just like stars, the main problem in finding them is how to discriminate them from stars. The survey technique in this study involves video recording of low dispersion spectra, which in the case of large redshift (i.e. large distance) quasars will exhibit the strong emission line Lyman-alpha. The survey is conducted like a census, aiming for completeness to well defined limits. A sharp downturn in the number of quasars found in previous work beyond a redshift of 3 indicates that the initial period of birth of quasars, and probably that of galaxies as well, is being observed. ***

摘要 AST 94-15574施密特，Maarten 这项拨款将继续对具有非常大红移的类星体进行系统的调查，以探索它们在大爆炸后最初几十亿年的性质。由于类星体非常明亮，它们可以在比任何其他天体更远的距离（也就是更大的年龄，当宇宙年轻得多的时候）被观察到。 由于类星体在光学上看起来就像恒星，寻找它们的主要问题是如何将它们与恒星区分开来。 在这项研究中的调查技术涉及视频记录的低色散光谱，这在大红移（即大距离）的类星体的情况下，将显示出强发射线莱曼α。调查的进行类似于人口普查，目的是在明确界定的限度内做到完整。在之前的工作中发现的类星体数量急剧下降，超过红移3，这表明类星体诞生的最初时期，也可能是星系诞生的最初时期，正在被观察到。 ***