Webb's View Around the Extremely Red Quasar SDSS J165202.64+172852.3

The quasar SDSS J165202.64+172852.3 is highlighted in an image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope in visible and near-infrared on the left. The images in the centre and on the right present new observations from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope in multiple wavelengths to demonstrate the distribution of gas around the object.

The quasar is an “extremely red” quasar that exists in the very early Universe, 11.5 billion years ago.

The image in the centre is composed of four narrow-band images made from the Webb NIRSpec instrument’s integral-field spectroscopy mode. All the four narrow-band images show extremely red-shifted emissions from doubly ionised oxygen which has an emission line around 500nm in visible light; before it was shifted to infrared light.

The panels on the right present the four narrow-band images separately. Each colour illustrates the relative speed of ionised oxygen gas across the cluster. The redder the colour the faster gas is moving away from our line of sight with the quasar, while the bluer the colour the faster it's moving away from the quasar toward us. The colour green indicates that the gas is steady in our line of sight in comparison to the quasar.

The blue and yellow panels reveal the bi-conical outflow from the quasar, with the orange panel showing the gas moving faster from us, which is extended towards the lower right, as well as highlighting a companion galaxy on the upper left of the frame.

[Image Description: This visual shows three images. On the left is a wide field view of multiple galaxies in the field. In the centre is an image that is composed of four narrow-band images together, which appears as a burred rainbow blotch of colours. On the right are the four individual narrow-band images of the quasar in red, orange, teal, and blue.]