This deep image shows the region of the sky around quasar HE0109-3518. The quasar is labeled with a red circle near the center of the image. The energetic radiation of the quasar makes dark galaxies glow, helping astronomers understand the obscure early stages of galaxy formation. The faint images of the glow from 12 dark galaxies are labeled with blue circles. Dark galaxies are essentially devoid of stars, therefore they donтАЩt emit any light that telescopes can catch. This makes them virtually impossible to observe unless they are illuminated by an external light source like a background quasar. Credit: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2/S. Cantalupo (UCSC)