Last week (Nov 3-5) 45 astronomers from the SDSS-III BOSS collaboration met at Princeton University to talk about the latest results from observing quasars. These extraordinarily luminous objects are powered by black holes feeding on gas in distant galaxies. Quasars are helping to tell us about the formation of galaxies in the early Universe and how the elements formed in stars are distributed in and around galaxies up to the present day.

The astronomers kindly paused in their contemplations to pose for the group picture above (photo credit: Keren Fedida).