Heavily Absorbed Active Galaxies (IMAGE)

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Heavily Absorbed Active Galaxies

Caption

A newfound population of heavily absorbed active galaxies (orange curve) is thought to make the greatest contribution to the cosmic X-ray background (light blue). Both have similar spectral shapes and peak at similar energies. Adding in the known contributions from less-absorbed active galaxies (yellow and purple) appears to fully account for the background.

Credit

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

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