MEDIA RELATIONS OFFICE
JET PROPULSION LABORATORY
CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
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http://www.jpl.nasa.gov

PHOTO CAPTION                                  February 18, 2000

     Spectrum of the newly discovered distant quasar, obtained 
with the Keck Telescope atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii.  The spectrum 
represents 4.5 hours of integration.   The horizontal axis is 
wavelength (color), increasing (getting redder) to the right.  
	The vertical axis shows position on the sky.  The vertical 
stripes evident on the spectrum are residuals from night sky 
lines, ie., wavelengths where the night sky is bright.  Horizontal 
stripes are sources.  The bottom source is a nearby galaxy 
emitting light from the blue to the red.  The central source is 
the distant quasar; its distance causes the spectrum 	to shift to 
red wavelengths, causing the source to be very faint at the bluer 
(left-ward) portion of the spectrum.