BALQSO Side-by-Side
These two Chandra images demonstrate the different appearances of "normal" and "shrouded" quasars. In these images, blue represents high-energy X-rays while red corresponds to lower-energy X-rays. The image on the left, created by combining the light from 8 of these shrouded quasars, appears distinctly blue. This is because the low-energy X-rays from the quasars have been absorbed by an obscuring "donut" of gas and dust surrounding their cores. In comparison, the Chandra image of the non-shrouded quasar PG 1634+706 shows that low-energy X-rays escape without the masking clouds of gas and dust. Recent data from Chandra reveal that -- despite their differences in appearance -- these two types of quasars are the same types of object, but viewed from a different angle.
(Credit: NASA/CfA/P.Green et al.)

Scale: Images are 30 arcsec per side.

BALQSO Low Energy
This Chandra image of the non-shrouded quasar known as PG 1634+706 shows that low-energy X-rays, shown in red, escape without the masking clouds of gas and dust.
(Credit: NASA/CfA/P.Green et al.)

Scale: Image is 30 arcsec per side.

BALQSO High Energy
This image was created by combining the light from 8 of these shrouded quasars and appears distinctly blue, which indicates that most of the lower-energy X-rays have been absorbed by the obscuring cloud of gas and dust surrounding the quasars' cores.
(Credit: NASA/CfA/P.Green et al.)

Scale: Image is 30 arcsec per side.