DISTANT 'SUPER-STARBURST' GALAXIES HIDE ACTIVE BLACK HOLES


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The radio emission contours overlay false colour images taken with the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys. Each image is approx. 2.6 arcsec on a side and the radio and X-ray peaks are shown in red and blue respectively. In each case the X-ray emission is thought to come from an active supermassive back hole concealed within a dusty torus. J123646+621404 (left) is a compact bright AGN at all wavelengths, at redshift 1 equivalent to a distance of 20 billion light years from Earth. J123622+621629 (centre) and J123621+621109 (right), at redshifts of 2.4 and 1 respectively (70 and 20 billion light years distant), have extended radio emission typical of starbursts and are associated with distorted, probably merging optical galaxies.