Editing Lyman-alpha forest (section)

==History==
The Lyman-alpha forest was first discovered in 1970 by astronomer Roger Lynds in an observation of the [[quasar]] [[List of quasars#Most distant quasars|4C 05.34]].<ref name="mcdonald2004">{{cite journal | title=The Lyman-α Forest Power Spectrum from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey | author1=Patrick McDonald | author2=Uros Seljak | author3=Scott Burles | author4=Schlegel | author5=Weinberg | author6=David Shih | author7=Joop Schaye | author8=Schneider | author9=Brinkmann | s2cid=118878555 | doi=10.1086/444361 | journal=Astrophys. J. Suppl. Ser. | volume=163 | issue=1 | pages=80–109 | year=2006 | arxiv=astro-ph/0405013|bibcode = 2006ApJS..163...80M  }}</ref> Quasar 4C 05.34 was the farthest object observed to that date, and Lynds noted an unusually large number of absorption lines in its spectrum and suggested that most of the absorption lines were all due to the same [[Lyman series|Lyman-alpha]] transition.<ref name="lynds_1971">{{cite journal |last=Lynds |first=Roger |date=1971-03-01 |title=The Absorption-Line Spectrum of 4C 05.34 |journal=The Astrophysical Journal |volume=164 |pages=L73–L78 |bibcode=1971ApJ...164L..73L |doi=10.1086/180695 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Follow-up observations by [[John N. Bahcall|John Bahcall]] and Samuel Goldsmith confirmed the presence of the unusual absorption lines, though they were less conclusive about the origin of the lines.<ref name='bahcall_1971'>{{cite journal | title = On the Absorption-Line Spectrum of 4c 05.34 | journal = The Astrophysical Journal | date = 1971-11-15 | first = John | last = Bahcall |author2=Samuel Goldsmith  | volume = 170 | pages = 17–24| doi=10.1086/151185 | bibcode = 1971ApJ...170...17B | bibcode-access=free }}</ref> Subsequently, the spectra of many other high-redshift quasars were observed to have the same system of narrow absorption lines. Lynds was the first to describe them as the "Lyman-alpha forest".<ref name='burbidge_skytel_quasars'>{{cite journal | title = A catalog of quasars near and far | journal = Sky & Telescope | date = December 1994 | first = Geoffrey R. | last = Burbidge |author2=Adelaide Hewitt  | volume = 88 | issue = 6 | pages = 32|bibcode = 1994S&T....88...32B }}</ref> [[Jan Oort]] argued that the absorption features are due not to any physical interactions within the quasars themselves, but to absorption inside clouds of [[Outer space#Intergalactic space|intergalactic gas]] in superclusters.<ref name='oort_obit'>{{cite journal | title = Jan Hendrik Oort (1900–1992) | journal = Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific | date = July 1993 | first = Adriaan | last = Blaauw |author2=Martin Schmidt  | volume = 105 | issue = 689 | pages = 681–685 | doi=10.1086/133220 | bibcode=1993PASP..105..681B| doi-access =  }}</ref>