Slug Nebula

Slug Nebula
Nebula
Observation data
Distance	z=2.283
Physical characteristics
Radius	450 kpc pc
Notable features	One of the largest and luminous Lyman-alpha nebula
	See also: Lists of nebulae

Last updated December 27, 2025

The Slug Nebula is one of the largest and most luminous Lyman-alpha nebula discovered so far extending over 450 kpc. The nebula sits at a distance of z=2.283 surrounds a bright quasar named UM287.^[1]

It has a high surface brightness and is filimentary. This high surface brightness implies two things: (1) very large densities of cold and ionized gas, (2) very large colum densities of neutral hydrogen.^[2]

References

↑ Leibler, Camille N; Cantalupo, Sebastiano; Holden, Bradford P; Madau, Piero (2018-10-21). "The detection of intergalactic H α emission from the Slug Nebula at z ∼ 2.3". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 480 (2): 2094–2108. arXiv: 1807.00054 . doi: 10.1093/mnras/sty1764 . ISSN 0035-8711.
↑ Cantalupo, Sebastiano; Pezzulli, Gabriele; Lilly, Simon J; Marino, Raffaella Anna; Gallego, Sofia G; Schaye, Joop; Bacon, Roland; Feltre, Anna; Kollatschny, Wolfram; Nanayakkara, Themiya; Richard, Johan; Wendt, Martin; Wisotzki, Lutz; Prochaska, J Xavier (2019-03-11). "The large- and small-scale properties of the intergalactic gas in the Slug Ly α nebula revealed by MUSE He ii emission observations". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 483 (4): 5188–5204. arXiv: 1811.11783 . doi: 10.1093/mnras/sty3481 . ISSN 0035-8711.

This nebula-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[1] Leibler, Camille N; Cantalupo, Sebastiano; Holden, Bradford P; Madau, Piero (2018-10-21). "The detection of intergalactic H α emission from the Slug Nebula at z ∼ 2.3". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 480 (2): 2094–2108. arXiv: 1807.00054 . doi: 10.1093/mnras/sty1764 . ISSN 0035-8711.

[2] Cantalupo, Sebastiano; Pezzulli, Gabriele; Lilly, Simon J; Marino, Raffaella Anna; Gallego, Sofia G; Schaye, Joop; Bacon, Roland; Feltre, Anna; Kollatschny, Wolfram; Nanayakkara, Themiya; Richard, Johan; Wendt, Martin; Wisotzki, Lutz; Prochaska, J Xavier (2019-03-11). "The large- and small-scale properties of the intergalactic gas in the Slug Ly α nebula revealed by MUSE He ii emission observations". Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 483 (4): 5188–5204. arXiv: 1811.11783 . doi: 10.1093/mnras/sty3481 . ISSN 0035-8711.

[1]

[2]