An Etymological Dictionary of Astronomy and Astrophysics
English-French-Persian

Any medium that absorbs something.

→ absorb; → -er.

A broad → absorption feature observed in → X-ray spectra of → active galactic nuclei (AGN). It is caused by material associated with the → interstellar medium in our → Galaxy and/or the host galaxy of the AGN or cold material near the AGN. → Quasars commonly have their X-ray spectrum absorbed by cold gas between us and the quasar X-ray source (along our → line of sight). This is particularly common in less luminous quasars. See also → warm absorber.

→ cold; → absorber.

A cloud of ionized gas within → active galactic nuclei (AGN) that causes absorption at → soft X-ray wavelengths. Warm absorbers were first suggested by Halpern (1984) to explain Einstein data of the quasar MR 2251-178. They are dubbed "warm" absorbers as they imply gas at temperatures of 10⁴-10⁵ K; the gas is → photoionized, not collisionally ionized. High resolution observations of warm absorbers have shown that they are outfowing. See also → cold absorber (Ceri Ellen Ashton, 2005, A Study of Warm Absorbers in Active Galactic Nuclei, Thesis, Mullard Space Science Laboratory Department of Space and Climate Physics University College London ).

→ warm; → absorber.