Artist’s depiction of a compton thick quasar in an active galactic nuclei showing a supermassive black hole surrounded by a thick cloud of dust, and with bright jets streaming from the center of the black hole.
Client
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Project Type
Science Visualization
Category
Astrophysics
Credit
Melissa Weiss/CfA
Brad Snios and his team used NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory to detect a compton thick supermassive black hole at a distance of 10% the age of the Universe. The dust is so thick that the light is completely obscured, making it impossible to detect this black hole optically, but it shined through beautifully in X-ray. This was one of the preliminary sketches that Brad provided to help develop the final result (above).
At first a side by side image was discussed to illustrate the difference between a compton thick and a non-compton thick black hole. In the end that seem to complicate the information Brad and his team were trying to explain, so an image of a compton thick black hole was created on its own.