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Keck, with Subaru and IRTF (NASA Infrared Telescope Facility). Vadim Kurland

Keck Observatory

January 5, 2016
Steve Jefferson
Communication Officer
W. M. Keck Observatory
sjefferson@keck.hawaii.edu

SCIENCE
Jeff Cooke
Swinburne University
jcooke@astro.swin.edu.au

John O’Meara
St. Michael’s College
jomeara@smcvt.edu

Artists impression of the power of background galaxies to measure the size of gas clouds as compared to the conventional method of using quasars. The plane to the far right shows the background galaxy and overlaid in the center of the galaxy is a bright white light representing a quasar. The DLA gas cloud is shown at the center of the plane in between the galaxy and Earth. The blue/white narrow beam indicates the small area of the DLA gas cloud probed by quasars, the wider red cone of light indicates the large area of the DLA probed by galaxies, which is a 100 million-fold increase in area. Credit: Adrian Malec (Swinburne…