View allAll Photos Tagged SPIRALGALAXY
Description: This is an image of the Needle Galaxy NGC 4565, an edge-on spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, as developed by me from a total exposure time of 6.75 hours. Of interest is the structure in the central portion of the disk as shown in the magnification inset. In order to reduce the brightness of stellar background I applied a morphological transformation in postprocessing.
Date/Location: 14, 18 February 2023 / Washington D.C.
Equipment:
Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8
OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain and 50 Offset
Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC
Guider: ZWO Off-Axis Guider
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 174mm mini
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Light Pollution Filter: Chroma LoGlow Broadband
Processing Software: Pixinsight
Processing Steps:
Preprocessing: I preprocessed 81x300s subs (= 6.75 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following steps: Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.
Linear Postprocessing: Rotation > Dynamic Crop > Dynamic Background Extractor (both subtraction to remove light pollution gradients and division for flat field corrections) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Noise Xterminator.
Nonlinear Postprocessing: First Histogram Transformation > Local Histogram Equalization > First Curves Transformation > SCNR Noise Reduction > Second Histogram Transformation > Morphological Transformation > Second Curves Transformation > Third Histogram Transformation.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy ESO 021-G004. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: This swirling mass of celestial gas, dust, and stars is a moderately luminous spiral galaxy named ESO 021-G004, located just under 130 million light-years away. This galaxy has something known as an active galactic nucleus. While this phrase sounds complex, this simply means that astronomers measure a lot of radiation at all wavelengths coming from the centre of the galaxy. This radiation is generated by material falling inwards into the very central region of ESO 021-G004, and meeting the behemoth lurking there — a supermassive black hole. As material falls towards this black hole it is dragged into orbit as part of an accretion disc; it becomes superheated as it swirls around and around, emitting characteristic high-energy radiation until it is eventually devoured. The data comprising this image were gathered by the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Edited European Southern Observatory image of the galaxies NGC 5426 and NGC 5427, known collectively as Arp 271. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: This image shows a pair of interacting galaxies known as Arp 271. Individually, these galaxies are named NGC 5426 and NGC 5427; both are spirals, and both are roughly the same size. Some astronomers believe that these galaxies are in the process of merging to form a single entity. This interaction will create increasing numbers of new stars over the next few million years, some of which can be seen within the “bridge” of gas connecting the two galaxies. This kind of collision and interaction might also happen to our own galaxy, the Milky Way, which is likely to collide with the neighbouring Andromeda Galaxy in about five billion years time. These galaxies lie over 120 million light years away from us, and were discovered by the German-British astronomer William Herschel in 1785. Herschel was a prolific scientist, also discovering both infrared radiation and the planet Uranus. Link: Previous release of the same galaxy pair: www.eso.org/public/images/potw1035a/
Description: This is my image of the Andromeda Galaxy M31 based on about 15 hours of total exposure time. The image identifies the two satellite galaxies M32 and M110. The angular size of M31 is a huge 178x63 arcminutes which occupies a significant portion of the APS-C sensor of my camera. Since there are also numerous background stars, finding a relatively star-free area to do a Background Neutralization is a bit of a challenge. I also found achieving a proper color balance to be another challenge. Various sources indicate the presence of an outer bluish halo encompassing the core. I tried to achieve my objective by applying a series of Curves Transformations while protecting the background with a mask. As a side note, while numerous stars are present, I decided against applying a Morphological Transformation to reduce their brightness because in doing so I detected an undesirable ringing effect. One possible solution is to apply Multiscale Linear Transform with deringing selected. However, I have not tested that option.
Date / Location: 21-23 September and 8-10 October 2022 / Washington D.C.
Equipment:
Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8
OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain
Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC
Guide Scope: WO 50mm Uniguide Scope
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 290mm
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Light Pollution Filter: Chroma LoGlow Broadband
Processing Software: Pixinsight
Processing Steps:
Preprocessing: I preprocessed 184x300s subs (= 15.3 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following steps: Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.
Linear Postprocessing: Rotation > Dynamic Crop > Dynamic Background Extractor (subtraction to remove light pollution gradients and division for flat field corrections) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Noise Xterminator.
Nonlinear Postprocessing: First Histogram Transformation > Second Histogram Transformation > First Local Histogram Equalization > Second Local Histogram Equalization First Curves Transformation > Second Curves Transformation > Third Curves Transformation > SCNR Noise Reduction.
This Hubble Space Telescope portrait shows a stunning view of the spiral galaxy NGC 4571, which lies approximately 60 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices. This constellation — whose name translates as Bernice’s Hair — was named after an Egyptian queen who lived more than 2200 years ago. As majestic as spiral galaxies like NGC 4571 are, they are far from the largest structures known to astronomers. NGC 4571 is part of the Virgo cluster, which contains more than a thousand galaxies. This cluster is in turn part of the larger Virgo supercluster, which also encompasses the Local Group which contains our own galaxy, the Milky Way.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2212a/
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of Arp 298.
Original caption: This striking image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope showcases Arp 298, a stunning pair of interacting galaxies. Arp 298 â which comprises the two galaxies NGC 7469 and IC 5283 â lies roughly 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. The larger of the two galaxies pictured here is the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7469, and IC 5283 is its diminutive companion. NGC 7469 is also host to an active, supermassive black hole and a bright ring of star clusters. The âArpâ in this galaxy pairâs name signifies that they are listed in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies compiled by the astronomer Halton Arp. The Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies is a roguesâ gallery of weird and wonderful galaxies containing peculiar structures, featuring galaxies exhibiting everything from segmented spiral arms to concentric rings. This interacting galaxy pair is a familiar sight for Hubble â a portrait of the merging galaxies in Arp 298 was published in 2008. This image of Arp 298 contains data from three separate Hubble proposals. By combining observations from three proposals, Arp 298 is captured in glorious detail in seven different filters from two of Hubbleâs instruments â the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. The process of planning Hubble observations starts with a proposal â a detailed plan of what an astronomer intends to observe and their scientific motivation for doing so. Once a year, these proposals are gathered and judged in a gruelling review process which assess their scientific merit and feasibility. Fewer than 20% of the proposed observations in any given year will make it through this process and be approved, which makes observing time with Hubble highly prized indeed. This system will be one of the first galaxies observed with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope as part of the Director's Discretionary Early Release Science Programs in Summer 2022.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 6814.
Original caption: Spiral galaxies together with irregular galaxies make up approximately 60% of the galaxies in the local Universe. However, despite their prevalence, each spiral galaxy is unique — like snowflakes, no two are alike. This is demonstrated by the striking face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6814, whose luminous nucleus and spectacular sweeping arms, rippled with an intricate pattern of dark dust, are captured in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image. NGC 6814 has an extremely bright nucleus, a telltale sign that the galaxy is a Seyfert galaxy. These galaxies have very active centres that can emit strong bursts of radiation. The luminous heart of NGC 6814 is a highly variable source of X-ray radiation, causing scientists to suspect that it hosts a supermassive black hole with a mass about 18 million times that of the Sun. As NGC 6814 is a very active galaxy, many regions of ionised gas are studded along its spiral arms. In these large clouds of gas, a burst of star formation has recently taken place, forging the brilliant blue stars that are visible scattered throughout the galaxy.
The blue and orange stars of the faint galaxy named NGC 2188 sparkle in this image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Although NGC 2188 appears at first glance to consist solely of a narrow band of stars, it is classified by astronomers as a barred-spiral galaxy. It appears this way from our viewpoint on Earth because the center and spiral arms of the galaxy are tilted away from us, with only the very narrow outer edge of the galaxy’s disc visible. Astronomers liken this to turning a dinner plate in your hands so you see only its outer edge.
The true shape of the galaxy was identified by studying the distribution of the stars in the inner central bulge and outer disc and by observing the stars’ colors.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Tully
For more information, visit: www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw2035a/
The Andromeda Galaxy (also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224) is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way (about 2.5 million light years away) and getting closer all the time. It is hurtling towards us at about 250,000 miles per hour and will collide with the Milky Way in around four billion years. Our solar system will probably be tossed much farther from the galactic core than it is today. M31 is a spiral galaxy spanning approximately 220,000 light-years and containing about a trillion stars.
I look forward to imaging this object every year because each time more details are captured. This shot was really just an experiment to try out three things: capturing the object using the ZWO ASI1600MC Pro camera instead of a DSLR; testing the polar alignment tool in SharpCature Pro to see if it makes an improvement; and finding a good method to make a mosaic in order to get more of the object in the frame. All three experiments were successful. I knew the ZWO ASI1600MC Pro would create a better image but because of its slightly smaller sensor size the field of view is also a little smaller so there is more of a need to make a mosaic to capture a huge object like M31. This image is just a two panel mosaic in order to include the two visible companion galaxies and there is a lot of overlap but future shots will hopefully be four panel mosaics so the entire galaxy is within the frame. Up until now I haven't had much success matching the backgrounds with mosaic shots but using Microsoft ICE really made a difference. I was very pleased with the polar alignment tool in SharpCature Pro. Recently polar alignments have been a bit hit and miss, sometimes very good but often terrible meaning poor guiding, streaky stars on some subs or having to use shorter exposures. The problem was becoming more frustrating with precious time wasted on poor subs that then have to be discarded. The solution was to either fork out over £200 on a system like PoleMaster or spend a tenner buying the licence for SharpCap and having access to its polar alignment tool. It was a bit fiddly first try but we got from our usual polar alignement, which the software designated as "fair" (about 3-5 arcminutes off), to "excellent" (about 17 arcseconds off). Wow, what a difference! We didn't have to throw out a single frame and if the sky was dark enough we'd be able to take 25 minute exposures now. Unfortunately with London skies being what they are we are still limited to around 5 or 6 minutes. Despite weather forecasts predicting a clear night, conditions were in fact pretty awful with thin high cloud and terrible seeing so it's kind of miraculous that this much of the galaxy was resolved. When we get a properly clear night with no Moon it will be worth making another attempt.
Information courtesy of Wikipedia and NASA:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy
science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2012/31may_...
Two Panel Mosaic
Panel 1
014 x 300 second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
030 x dark frames
040 x flat frames
100 x bias/offset frames
Binning 1x1
Panel 2
019 x 300 second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
030 x dark frames
040 x flat frames
100 x bias/offset frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 2 hours and 45 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Polar Alignment with SharpCap Pro
Processed in Nebulosity, Fitsworks, Microsoft ICE and Photoshop
Equipment
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI120MC
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Light pollution filter
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 4680.
Original caption: This image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), features the spiral galaxy NGC 4680. At 2 o’clock and 7 o’clock two other galaxies can be seen flanking NGC 4680. NGC 4680 enjoyed a wave of attention in 1997, as it played host to a supernova explosion known as SN 1997bp. Amazingly, the supernova was identified by an Australian amateur astronomer named Robert Evans, who has identified an extraordinary 42 supernova explosions. NGC 4680 is actually a rather tricky galaxy to classify. It is sometimes referred to as a spiral galaxy, but it is also sometimes classified as a lenticular galaxy. Lenticular galaxies fall somewhere in between spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. Whilst NGC 4680 does have distinguishable spiral arms, they are not clearly defined, and the tip of one arm appears very diffuse. Galaxies are not static, and their morphologies (and therefore their classifications) vary throughout their lifetimes. Spiral galaxies are thought to evolve into elliptical galaxies, most likely by merging with one another, causing them to lose their distinctive spiral structures.
This majestic spiral galaxy might earn the nickname the "Godzilla galaxy" because it may be the largest known in the local universe. The galaxy, UGC 2885, is 2.5 times wider than our Milky Way and contains 10 times as many stars.
But it is a "gentle giant," say researchers, because it looks like it has been sitting quietly over billions of years, possibly sipping hydrogen from the filamentary structure of intergalactic space. This fuels modest ongoing star birth at half the rate of our Milky Way. In fact, its supermassive central black hole is a sleeping giant, too. Because the galaxy does not appear to be feeding on much smaller satellite galaxies, it is starved of infalling gas.
The galaxy has been nicknamed "Rubin’s galaxy," after astronomer Vera Rubin (1928 – 2016), by Benne Holwerda of the University of Louisville, Kentucky, who observed the galaxy with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.
"My research was in a large part inspired by Vera Rubin's work in 1980 on the size of this galaxy," said Holwerda. Rubin measured the galaxy's rotation, which provides evidence for dark matter, which makes up most of the galaxy's mass as measured by the rotation rate. "We consider this a commemorative image. This goal to cite Dr. Rubin in our observation was very much part of our original Hubble proposal."
In results being presented at the winter American Astronomical Society meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, Holwerda is seeking to understand what led to the galaxy's monstrous size. "How it got so big is something we don't quite know yet," said Holwerda. "It's as big as you can make a disk galaxy without hitting anything else in space."
One clue is that the galaxy is fairly isolated in space and doesn't have any nearby galaxies to crash into and disrupt the shape of its disk.
Did the monster galaxy gobble up much smaller satellite galaxies over time? Or did it just slowly accrete gas for new stars? "It seems like it's been puttering along, slowly growing," Holwerda said. Using Hubble's exceptional resolution, his team is counting the number of globular star clusters in the galaxy's halo — a vast shell of faint stars surrounding the galaxy. An excess of clusters would yield evidence that they were captured from smaller infalling galaxies over many billions of years.
NASA's upcoming James Webb Space Telescope could be used to explore the center of this galaxy as well as the globular cluster population. NASA's planned Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) would give an even more complete census of this galaxy's cluster population, especially that of the whole halo. "The infrared capability of both space telescopes would give us a more unimpeded view of the underlying stellar populations," said Holwerda. This complements Hubble's visible-light ability to track wispy star formation throughout the galaxy.
A number of foreground stars in our Milky Way can be seen in the image, identified by their diffraction spikes. The brightest appears to sit on top of the galaxy's disk, though UGC 2885 is really 232 million light-years farther away. The giant galaxy is located in the northern constellation Perseus.
For more information: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2020/nasas-hubble-surveys-gi...
Credits: NASA, ESA and B. Holwerda (University of Louisville)
NGC 3718 nella costellazione dell'Orsa Maggiore è classificata come una galassia a spirale barrata peculiare: in realtà la sua forma è più complessa, a causa dell'interazione con la galassia compagna NGC 3729 visibile nella parte inferiore dell'immagine. Entrambe le galassie si trovano a 49 milioni di anni luce dalla Terra, ma la distanza tra di loro è di solo 185000 anni luce.
Da notare in NGC 3718 la banda di polveri che attraversa tutta la regione centrale.
Sulla destra di NGC 3718 si nota un gruppo di piccole galassie, catalogate come Hickson 56: la loro distanza stimata è di ben 400 milioni di anni luce.
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NGC 3718 in Ursa Major is classified like a peculiar barred spiral galaxy: indeed its shape is more complex, due to the interaction with the companion galaxy NGC 3729 visible on the bottom side of the image. Both galaxies are located at a distance of about 49 million light years, and the distance between them is only 185000 light years. To be noted in NGC 3718 the very evident dust lane crossing the central regions. On the right of NGC 3718 is visible a group of galaxies, catalogued as Hickson 56: their estimate distance is about 400 million light years.
Technical data
GSO RC12 Truss - Aperture 304mm, focal lenght 2432mm, f/8
Mount 10Micron GM2000 HPSII
Camera ZWO ASI 2600 MM Pro with filter wheel 7 positions
Filters Astrodon Gen2 E-Serie Tru-Balance 50mm unmounted LRGB
Guiding system ZWO OAG-L with guide camera ASI 174MM
Exposure details:
L 50x300", RGB 16x300" for each channel, all in bin3 -15C gain 100
Total integration time: 8h10'
Acquisition: Voyager, PHD2
Processing: Pixinsight 1.8, Photoshop CS5, StarXTerminator, NoiseXTerminator, BlurXTerminator
SQM-L: 21.00
Location: Promiod (Aosta Valley, Italy), own remote observatory
Date 18 December 2023, 12/13 January 2024
If we could travel across space and time to see our own galaxy from the outside looking in, it would probably look a lot like Caldwell 23. This spiral galaxy, also cataloged as NGC 891, is about 35 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Andromeda. Sir Patrick Moore, creator of the Caldwell catalog, once said the full galaxy looks like “two fried eggs clapped back to back.” In this Hubble image, taken in visible and infrared light using the Advanced Camera for Surveys, the “yolk” portion of the galaxy is out of the picture beyond the lower left corner. A few foreground stars from the Milky Way shine brightly, while more-distant galaxies can be seen in the lower right corner of the image.
Astronomers used Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 23 to learn more about the structure and evolution of spiral galaxies. One of their findings helped identify the source of Caldwell 23’s galactic “halo.” The halo surrounds the galaxy and primarily contains old stars, some of which are grouped together in large, sphere-shaped collections called globular clusters. The source of this halo material has been unclear, since theoretically it could either originate in the galaxy or be gravitationally pulled in from the area surrounding the galaxy. Scientists using Hubble found that Caldwell 23’s halo is similar in composition to other material in the galaxy, which suggests that the halo material was expelled from within the galaxy.
This Hubble image shows wispy tendrils of dust and gas branching off from the plane of the galaxy into the halo. Astronomers believe these structures formed as material was ejected outward by supernovae or intense star formation activity. When massive stars light up at birth or explode at death, they produce powerful winds that can blow dust and gas over hundreds of light-years of space.
Caldwell 23 was discovered by astronomer William Herschel in October 1784. The galaxy has a magnitude of 10, so use a telescope to see it, away from any sources of light pollution. Under ideal conditions you can make out the galaxy’s central dark lane. Autumn night skies in the Northern Hemisphere will provide the best view. In the Southern Hemisphere, look for Caldwell 23 in the springtime.
For more information about Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 23, see:
www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1220a/
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/1999/news-1999-10.html
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgment: Nick Rose
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
Added some data with the Atik 414-EX and Hα filter. I thought there were more emission nebulae in M106 that would appear, but it looks like there's only a few in two of the arms that my setup could pick up.
Telescope: Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with HyperStar
RGB data: Atik 314L+ one-shot color, taken 2018-02-17; 23 3m 30s exposures
Hα data: Atik 414-EX monochrome with hydrogen-alpha 7nm filter; 12 4m exposures
Preprocessing in Nebulosity; registration, stacking, channel combination, and processing in PixInsight; final touches in Photoshop
This spiral galaxy is a giant. It appears in the sky as 5 times the full moon . It is rather close in astronomical terms, about 2.5 million light years away and apparently is rushing toward us at the speed of 300km per second. Rendez-vous is planned in a few billions years!
Two smaller galaxies (M32 and M110) and a star cluster in M31 are indicated
I took this picture during 3 nights between 1 and 3 o'clock
Refractor F/D=5.6, F=712mm; STL 24x36mm CCD camera; 2h20' in L and 50' in each RGB colour.
Not too happy with the processing!
Description: This Great Observatories view of the famous Sombrero galaxy was made using Chandra, Hubble, and Spitzer. The main figure shows the combined image from the three telescopes, while the inset images show the separate observatory views. Chandra's X-ray image (in blue) shows hot gas in the galaxy and point sources that are a mixture of objects within the galaxy and quasars in the background. Hubble's optical image (green) reveals the bulge of starlight partially blocked by a rim of dust, which glows brightly in Spitzer's infrared view.
Creator/Photographer: Chandra X-ray Observatory
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, which was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999, is the most sophisticated X-ray observatory built to date. The mirrors on Chandra are the largest, most precisely shaped and aligned, and smoothest mirrors ever constructed. Chandra is helping scientists better understand the hot, turbulent regions of space and answer fundamental questions about origin, evolution, and destiny of the Universe. The images Chandra makes are twenty-five times sharper than the best previous X-ray telescope. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Chandra program for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory controls Chandra science and flight operations from the Chandra X-ray Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Medium: Chandra telescope x-ray
Date: 2007
Persistent URL: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/sombrero/
Repository: Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
Collection: Normal Galaxies and Starburst Galaxies Collection
Gift line: X-ray: NASA/UMass/Q.D.Wang et al.; Optical: NASA/STScI/AURA/Hubble Heritage; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Univ. AZ/R.Kennicutt/SINGS Team
Accession number: sombrero
Editor's Note: This is an archive image from 2003. This is a close-up detail from the main image, posted at: www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/4362557297/
Chandra's X-ray image (blue) has been combined with Hubble's optical image (red and green) to compose this stunning and revealing picture of the spiral galaxy NGC 3079. Towering filaments consisting of warm (about ten thousand degrees Celsius) and hot (about ten million degrees Celsius) gas blend to create the bright horseshoe-shaped feature near the center.
The correlation of the warm and hot filaments suggests that they were both formed as a superwind of gas -- rushing out from the central regions of the galaxy -- carved a cavity in the cool gas of disk galactic disk. The superwind stripped fragments of gas off the walls of the cavity, stretched them into long filaments, and heated them. The full extent of the superwind shows up as a fainter conical cloud of X-ray emission surrounding the filaments.
A superwind, such as the one in NGC 3079 originates in the center of the galaxy, either from activity generated by a central supermassive black hole, or by a burst of supernova activity. Superwinds are thought to play a key role in the evolution of galaxies by regulating the formation of new stars, and by dispersing heavy elements to the outer parts of the galaxy and beyond. These latest Chandra data indicate that astronomers may be seriously underestimating the mass lost in superwinds and therefore their influence within and around the host galaxy.
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/ngc3079/
Image credit: NASA/CXC/STScI/U.North Carolina/G.Cecil
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
The majestic spiral galaxy Caldwell 30, also cataloged as NGC 7331, is often touted as an analog to our own Milky Way, as its size, shape, and mass are similar to our galaxy’s. Caldwell 30’s starry disk is inclined to our line of sight, so long telescopic exposures often result in images that evoke a strong sense of depth. In this Hubble close-up, taken in visible and ultraviolet light using the Wide Field Camera 3, the galaxy’s magnificent spiral arms feature dark, obscuring dust lanes, bright bluish clusters of massive young stars, and the telltale reddish glow of active star-forming regions. The bright, yellowish central regions harbor populations of older, cooler stars. As in the Milky Way, a supermassive black hole lies at the core of this near-twin galaxy.
Hubble took this image of Caldwell 30 while studying a supernova explosion, which is the fiery death of a massive star. This supernova, called SN 2014C, experienced an unusual and dramatic transformation that involved a significant upsurge in hydrogen content. Hubble’s observations provided a chance to gain insight into the final stages of massive stars.
Caldwell 30 is located about 45 million light-years away at the northern boundary of the constellation Pegasus. The galaxy is only about half a degree away from a group of five galaxies known as Stephan’s Quintet. Caldwell 30 and the quintet may appear to be near each other in the sky, but the quintet is actually about six times farther away from Earth.
Caldwell 30 was discovered in 1784 by famed astronomer William Herschel, who also discovered the planet Uranus as well as many other Caldwell objects. Late autumn skies will provide the best view from the Northern Hemisphere (or spring skies in the Southern Hemisphere). However, with a magnitude of 9.5, Caldwell 30 will require a telescope or large binoculars to see it for yourself. In light-polluted skies, only the central core of the galaxy is visible. Under dark skies, a large telescope will also reveal the galaxy’s sweeping spiral arms.
For more information about Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 30, see:
www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1805a/
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA/D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University)
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
Messier 106. After nearly a month of no imaging because of bad weather, We wanted an easy, fun target and it's been a few years since we last visited M106. This image has been framed to capture 5 other galaxies in the vicinity. Messier 106 (also known as NGC 4258) is an intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. M106 is at a distance of about 22 to 25 million light-years away from Earth. It is one of the largest and brightest nearby galaxies, similar in size and luminosity to the Andromeda Galaxy.
03-04/04/2023
027 x 300-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -10°C
55 x dark frames
030 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 2 hours and 15 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: Zwo ASI 120 MC and SVBONY SV105 with ZWO USBST4 guider adapter
Imaging Camera: Zwo ASI 1600MC Pro with anti-dew heater
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Filter: Optolong L-Pro
Video release date March 8, 2010
Hubble has snapped a spectacular view of M66, the largest "player" of the Leo Triplet, and a galaxy with an unusual anatomy: it displays asymmetric spiral arms and an apparently displaced core. The peculiar anatomy is most likely caused by the gravitational pull of the other two members of the trio.
Credit: ESA/Hubble
Visual design & Editing: Martin Kornmesser
Animations: Martin Kornmesser
Web Technical Support: Lars Holm Nielsen & Raquel Yumi Shida
Written by: Colleen Sharkey
Narration: Gaitee Hussain
Music: John Dyson from the CDs Darklight and Moonwind
Additional images: Robert Gendler
Directed by: Colleen Sharkey
Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen
Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin
To view or download this entire video go to: www.spacetelescope.org/videos/html/heic1006a.html
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.
A peek into part of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. Our main target was The Coma Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as The Virgo Cluster Pinwheel, Messier 99, M99, or NGC 4254). This is the grand design spiral galaxy on the right side of the image. This galaxy is approximately 50 million light-years away from the Milky Way in the constellation Coma Berenices. It's a target we hadn't imaged before and another Messier object to tick off the list. However, I was more intrigued by the two galaxies on the left side of the image because they appear to be interacting (more on them shortly). M99 has a tail extending from one of its arms only part of which is visible here. This extended region, known as VIRGOHI21, is thought to contain a large quantity of dark matter and the relative lack of stars in it has led to speculation that it may be one of the first detected dark galaxies. An alternative proposition is that VIRGOHI21 is the result of a collision with either the galaxy NGC 4192 (not shown here) or NGC 4262 (shown in the upper central part of the image). This collision would have occurred some 280 million years ago.
The two galaxies on the left are NGC 4302, an edge-on spiral galaxy located about 55 million light-years away, and NGC 4298, a flocculent spiral galaxy about 53 million light-years away. Both of these galaxies also reside in Coma Berenices. The lopsided, asymmetrical distribution of stars in NGC 4298 suggests a possible interaction with NGC 4302. There are numerous galaxies visible in this shot, some are little more than faint dots (like IC 3177 at the bottom of the image), and some are more clearly identifiable as galaxies (such as IC 781 at very the top of the image, and NGC 4262 a little below it).
This session was also a further test of the new Arduino-based tracking and guiding system that Ben is developing following the dramatic demise of the mount's motor controllers that temporarily halted our observing and imaging sessions. That project is coming along nicely and guiding was nominal.
31/03/2021
040 x 300-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
050 x dark frames
040 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 3 hours and 20 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Equipment:
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI120MC
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro with anti-dew heater
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Optolong L-Pro filter
Evidence for a pair of supermassive black holes in a spiral galaxy has been found in data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory. This main image is a composite of X-rays from Chandra (blue) and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (gold) of the spiral galaxy NGC 3393. Meanwhile, the inset box shows the central region of NGC 3993 as observed just by Chandra.
The diffuse blue emission in the large image is from hot gas near the center of NGC 3393 and shows low energy X-rays. The inset shows only high energy X-rays, including emission from iron. This type of emission is a characteristic feature of growing black holes that are heavily obscured by dust and gas.
Two separate peaks of X-ray emission (roughly at 11 o'clock and 4 o'clock) can clearly be seen in the inset box. These two sources are black holes that are actively growing, generating X-ray emission as gas falls towards the black holes and becomes hotter. The obscured regions around both black holes block the copious amounts of optical and ultraviolet light produced by infalling material.
At a distance of 160 million light years, NGC 3393 contains the nearest known pair of supermassive black holes. It is also the first time a pair of black holes has been found in a spiral galaxy like our Milky Way. Separated by only 490 light years, the black holes in NGC 3393 are likely the remnant of a merger of two galaxies of unequal mass a billion or more years ago.
Dubbed "minor mergers" by scientists, such collisions of one larger and another smaller galaxy may, in fact, be the most common way for black hole pairs to form. Until the latest Chandra observations of NGC 3393, however, it has has been difficult to find good candidates for minor mergers because the merged galaxy is expected to look like an ordinary spiral galaxy.
If this was a minor merger, the black hole in the smaller galaxy should have had a smaller mass than the other black hole before their host galaxies started to collide. Good estimates of the masses of both black holes are not yet available to test this idea, although the observations do show that both black holes are more massive than about a million Suns.
Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/G. Fabbiano et al; Optical: NASA/STScI
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/n3393/
Caption credit: Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics
Read more about Chandra:
p.s. You can see all of our Chandra photos in the Chandra Group in Flickr at: www.flickr.com/groups/chandranasa/ We'd love to have you as a member!
Tendrils of dark dust can be seen threading across the heart of the spiral galaxy NGC 7172 in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy lies approximately 110 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Piscis Austrinus. The lane of dust threading its way across NGC 7172 — which is viewed side-on in this image — is obscuring the luminous heart of the galaxy, making NGC 7172 appear to be nothing more than a normal edge-on spiral galaxy.
When astronomers inspected NGC 7172 across the electromagnetic spectrum they quickly discovered that there was more to it than meets the eye: NGC 7172 is a Seyfert galaxy — a type of galaxy with an intensely luminous active galactic nucleus powered by matter accreting onto a supermassive black hole.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. J. Rosario, A. Barth
Acknowledgement: L. Shatz
For more information, visit: esahubble.org/images/potw2213a/
M: iOptron EQ45-Pro
T: WO GTF81
C: ZWO ASI1600MC
G: OAG and PHD2
Gain: 250; RAW16; FITs
Temp: -15 DegC
Frames: 22 Lights; 6 Darks; 6 flats
Exp: 250s
No Crop
Capture: Sharpcap
Processed: APP; PS, Gradient Exterminator.
Galaxy Messier 51 (M51, also designated NGC 5194) is nicknamed the Whirlpool because of its prominent swirling structure. Its two curving arms, a hallmark of so-called grand-design spiral galaxies, are home to young stars, while its yellow core is where older stars reside.
Many spiral galaxies possess numerous, loosely shaped arms, which make their spiral structure less pronounced. These arms are star-formation factories, compressing hydrogen gas and creating clusters of new stars.
Some astronomers believe that the Whirlpool's arms are so prominent because of the effects of a close encounter with NGC 5195, the small, yellowish galaxy at the outermost tip of one of the Whirlpool's arms. At first glance, the compact galaxy appears to be tugging on the arm. Hubble's clear view, however, shows that NGC 5195 is passing behind the Whirlpool. The small galaxy has been gliding past M51 for hundreds of millions of years.
For more information, please visit: hubblesite.org/image/1677
Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Beckwith (STScI), and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Edited European Southern Observatory image of the spiral galaxy NTC 6902.
Original caption: This Picture of the Week is a special treat: a first-light image from the newest resident of ESO’s Paranal Observatory, the SPECULOOS Southern Observatory. This planet-hunting machine aims to observe nearby but dim stars to locate exoplanets for other telescopes — such as ESO’s forthcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) — to study in detail. Comprising four one-metre telescopes, each named after one of Jupiter’s Galilean moons, SPECULOOS promises to open up new frontiers in exoplanet research.
This image, however, is obviously not of a faint star, but of a galaxy called NGC 6902. Before a telescope starts its primary mission it must successfully undertake an event called “first light”: the first time it is used for a scientific observation. Astronomers typically pick well-known objects for this initial test of a telescope’s capabilities, which is half demonstration and half celebration. In this case, the team settled on NGC 6902 as the first-light target for the Ganymede telescope.
The result was this stunning image of the spiral galaxy, which is found about 120 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer). The galaxy’s spiral arms swirl outwards from a bright centre until they dissolve into streams of blue haze at the galaxy’s edge. If this is what Ganymede can produce as its first observation of something it wasn’t even designed to image, we have a lot to look forward to. Watch this space!
Hubble has allowed astronomers to view galaxies of all shapes and sizes from nearly every angle. When a galaxy is seen edge-on, the mesmerizing perspective reveals a dazzling slice of the universe. Caldwell 43, also known as the “Little Sombrero,” is one such galaxy.
Set against a speckled backdrop of more remote galaxies, Caldwell 43 features a bright central bulge, a thin disk full of dust, and a glowing halo of gas and stars that sprawls out into space.
The Little Sombrero was discovered by British astronomer William Herschel in 1784. The dusty spiral gets its nickname from the Sombrero galaxy (M104), which resembles a broad-rimmed Mexican hat and was discovered by the French astronomer Pierre Méchain just a few years earlier in 1781. Also viewed from its edge, the Sombrero galaxy is located just 28 million light-years away and looks larger than the Little Sombrero. In reality, they are nearly the same size. The Sombrero appears bigger because it is closer. With a magnitude of 10.5, the Little Sombrero is tougher to spot because it is farther away, at a distance of 40 million light-years from Earth.
Also known as NGC 7814, the roughly 80,000-light-year-wide galaxy is billions of years old. Observers equipped with a telescope at least 7 inches in diameter will have the best luck spotting the galaxy, which resides in the constellation Pegasus. The dim, elongated galaxy is bright enough to be seen in moderately light-polluted skies. In the Northern Hemisphere, the autumn months provide the best opportunity to view Caldwell 43. In the Southern Hemisphere, look for it in the springtime.
This image of Caldwell 43 is a combination of visible and infrared observations captured by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys in 2006. The observations were taken to assist astronomers in studying the galaxy’s stellar populations, and to help shed light on the evolution of this galaxy and others like it.
For more information about Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 43, see:
www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1505a/
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgment: Josh Barrington
For Hubble's Caldwell catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit:
The first time I saw a professional photo of this trio, I thought they had been photoshopped next to each other. This is a rich field of galaxies in the constellation Draco which features a spiral whose structure is visible (NGC 5985, on the left), an elliptical galaxy (NGC 5982, center), and an edge-on spiral (NGC 5981, right). The three galaxies are not gravitationally associated in a group, but are all over 100 million light years away. I like how adding extra data brought out the pinwheel like fringes of NGC 5985, and the shell structure of NGC 5982.
This is a stack of 15 3 minute sub-frames and 23 4 minute sub-frames shot from Death Valley and Lone Pine CA. The telescope and camera were a Celestron 9.25" Edge HD at f/2.3 with Hyperstar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD camera. Pre-processing and stacking were done with Nebulosity, and final processing in PixInsight and PS CS 5.1.
The center (J2000) of the image is at
RA 15h 38m 40s
DEC +59° 25' 19"
The image spans 34.5' by 51'.
Galaxies Messier 82 (also known as NGC 3034, Cigar Galaxy or M82) and Messier 81 (also known as NGC 3031 or Bode's Galaxy) are galaxies about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The lower right corner also shows the galaxy NGC 3077. NGC 3077 is a smaller member of the M81 Group.
PHOTO DETAILS: photographed on January 3, 2014 under good conditions and includes 30 x 60 second, 5 x 90 second exposures (total 37.5 minutes), 10 bias and 8 dark frames. A Canon T4i and Canon EF400mm f/5.6L USM lens at ISO 800 were used. The camera was mounted on a ZEQ25GT mount from iOptron. Photo's were stacked in ImagesPlus and final editing done in Corel PaintshopPro X6 and X5.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy UGC 6093.
Original caption: This image, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), shows a galaxy named UGC 6093. As can be easily seen, UGC 6093 is something known as a barred spiral galaxy — it has beautiful arms that swirl outwards from a bar slicing through the galaxy’s centre. It is classified as an active galaxy, which means that it hosts an active galactic nucleus, or AGN: a compact region at a galaxy’s centre within which material is dragged towards a supermassive black hole. As this black hole devours the surrounding matter it emits intense radiation, causing it to shine brightly. But UGC 6093 is more exotic still. The galaxy essentially acts as a giant astronomical laser that spews out light at microwave, not visible, wavelengths — this type of object is dubbed a megamaser (maser being the term for a microwave laser). Megamasers such as UGC 6093 can be some 100 million times brighter than masers found in galaxies like the Milky Way. Hubble’s WFC3 observes light spanning a range wavelengths — from the near-infrared, through the visible range, to the near-ultraviolet. It has two channels that detect and process different light, allowing astronomers to study a remarkable range of astrophysical phenomena; for example, the UV-visible channel can study galaxies undergoing massive star formation, while the near-infrared channel can study redshifted light from galaxies in the distant Universe. Such multi-band imaging makes Hubble invaluable in studying megamaser galaxies, as it is able to untangle their intriguing complexity.
Triangulum Galaxy (M33, NGC 598). The last time we imaged this galaxy was 3 years ago and I wanted to add more data, however a hard drive failure meant the old data was lost. This session was the first since August and also the first since upgrading the computer to an SSD and 16 GB of RAM which made a big improvement to its performance. It was a beautifully clear night with no moon and great visibility.
[From Wikipedia]The Triangulum Galaxy is a spiral galaxy 2.73 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Triangulum. It is catalogued as Messier 33 or NGC (New General Catalogue) 598. With the D25 isophotal diameter of 61,100 light-years, the Triangulum Galaxy is the third-largest member of the Local Group of galaxies, behind the Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way.
The galaxy is the smallest spiral galaxy in the Local Group, and is believed to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy or on its rebound into the latter due to their interactions, velocities, and proximity to one another in the night sky. Triangulum may be home to 40 billion stars, compared to 400 billion for the Milky Way, and 1 trillion stars for Andromeda Galaxy.
044 x 300-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -10°C
055 x dark frames
045 x flat frames
100 x bias/offset frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 3 hours and 40 minutes
Captured with APT
Guided with PHD2
Processed in Nebulosity and Photoshop
Astrometry assistance from Astrometry.net
Equipment
Telescope: Sky-Watcher Explorer-150PDS
Mount: Skywatcher EQ5
Guide Scope: Orion 50mm Mini
Guiding Camera: ZWO ASI120MC
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Light pollution filter
Source: hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2010/36/
Retouching: Lightroom 3
_____________________
This face-on spiral galaxy, called NGC 3982, is striking for its rich tapestry of star birth, along with its winding arms. The arms are lined with pink star-forming regions of glowing hydrogen, newborn blue star clusters, and obscuring dust lanes that provide the raw material for future generations of stars. The bright nucleus is home to an older population of stars, which grow ever more densely packed toward the center.
NGC 3982 is located about 68 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. The galaxy spans about 30,000 light-years, one-third of the size of our Milky Way galaxy.
Video release date March 8, 2010
Zooming in on Messier 66, the largest galaxy within the Leo Triplet. M66 is located at a distance of about 35 million light-years in the constellation of Leo.
Credit: ESA/Hubble
To download this video go to: www.spacetelescope.org/videos/html/heic1006b.html
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center is home to the nation's largest organization of combined scientists, engineers and technologists that build spacecraft, instruments and new technology to study the Earth, the sun, our solar system, and the universe.
The graceful, winding arms of the majestic spiral galaxy NGC 3147 appear like a grand spiral staircase sweeping through space in this Hubble Space Telescope image. They are actually long lanes of young blue stars, pinkish nebulas, and dust in silhouette.
The beauty of the galaxy belies the fact that at its very center is a malnourished black hole surrounded by a thin, compact disk of stars, gas, and dust that have been caught up in a gravitational maelstrom. The black hole's gravity is so intense that anything that ventures near it gets swept up in the disk.The disk is so deeply embedded in the black hole's intense gravitational field that the light from the gas disk is modified, according to Einstein's theories of relativity, giving astronomers a unique peek at the dynamic processes close to a black hole.
NGC 3147 is located 130 million light-years away in the northern circumpolar constellation Draco the Dragon.
For more information, visit: hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2019/news-2019-35.html
Credit: NASA, ESA, S. Bianchi (Università degli Studi Roma Tre, Italy) and M. Chiaberge (ESA, STScI, and JHU)
Description: This is my image of Bode’s Galaxy M81 (or NGC 3031) in Ursa Major based on 5.85 hours of total exposure time. The ZWO Duo-Band light pollution filter used by me passes light at H-alpha and O(III) wavelengths at bandwidths of 15nm and 35nm, respectively. Achieving a good color balance proved to be one of my main challenges. To that end, I applied small doses of Curves Transformation in a series of steps checking for a good balance at each stage. I also used the same principle when applying the Local Histogram Transformation as well as the Histogram Transformation. This progressive approach helped me to build confidence in developing color in my image.
Date / Location: 10, 11 and 20 April 2022 / Washington D.C.
Equipment:
Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8
OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain
Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC
Guide Scope: ZWO ASI 30mm f/4
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 120mm-mini
Light Pollution Filter: ZWO Duo-Band Light Pollution Filter
Processing Software: Pixinsight
Processing Steps:
Preprocessing: I preprocessed 117x180s subs (= 5.85 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following steps: Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.
Linear Postprocessing: Rotation > Dynamic Crop > Dynamic Background Extractor (subtraction to remove light pollution gradients) > Dynamic Background Extractor (division for flat field corrections) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Noise Xterminator.
Nonlinear Postprocessing: First Histogram Transformation > First Local Histogram Equalization > First Curves Transformation > SCNR Noise Reduction > Second Local Histogram Equalization > Second Curves Transformation > Third Local Histogram Equalization > Third Curves Transformation > Second Histogram Transformation > Fourth Local Histogram Equalization > Fourth Curves Transformation > Fifth Curves Transformation > Third Histogram Transformation > Fourth Histogram Transformation.
A photogenic and favorite target for amateur astronomers, the full beauty of nearby spiral galaxy M83 is unveiled in all of its glory in this Hubble Space Telescope mosaic image. The vibrant magentas and blues reveal the galaxy is ablaze with star formation. The galaxy, also known as the Southern Pinwheel, lies 15 million light-years away in the constellation Hydra.
The Hubble photograph captures thousands of star clusters, hundreds of thousands of individual stars, and "ghosts" of dead stars called supernova remnants. The galactic panorama unveils a tapestry of the drama of stellar birth and death spread across 50,000 light-years.
The newest generations of stars are forming largely in clusters on the edges of the dark spiral dust lanes. These brilliant young stellar groupings, only a few million years old, produce huge amounts of ultraviolet light that is absorbed by surrounding diffuse gas clouds, causing them to glow in pinkish hydrogen light.
Gradually, the fierce stellar winds from the youngest, most massive stars blow away the gas, revealing bright blue star clusters and giving a "Swiss cheese" appearance to the spiral arms. These youngest star clusters are about 1 million to 10 million years old. The populations of stars up to 100 million years or older appear yellow or orange by comparison because the young blue stars have already burned out.
Interstellar "bubbles" produced by nearly 300 supernovas from massive stars have been found in this Hubble image. By studying these supernova remnants, astronomers can better understand the nature of the stars that exploded and dispersed nuclear processed chemical elements back into the galaxy, contributing to the next generation of new stars.
This image was used to support a citizen science project titled STAR DATE: M83. The primary goal was to estimate ages for approximately 3,000 star clusters. STAR DATE: M83 was a joint collaborative effort between the Space Telescope Science Institute and Zooniverse, creators of several citizen science projects including Galaxy Zoo, Planet Hunters, and the Andromeda Project (go to www.zooniverse.org to see the full list).
For more information, visit:
hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2014/news-2014-04.html
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgement: W. Blair (STScI/Johns Hopkins University) and R. O'Connell (University of Virginia)
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy UGC 3885. The bright star "over" the galaxy belongs to the Milky Way Galaxy and isn't associated with UGC 3885.
Original caption: A bright foreground star isn’t enough to distract from the grandeur of the galaxy UGC 3885, captured here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. While this foreground star is incredibly bright to Hubble’s eye, it does not outshine the details of the background galaxy. Many young blue stars are sprinkled throughout the circular patterns of UGC 3885’s arms, contrasted and complemented by dark lanes of dust also following the spiral structure. A glancing look at UGC 3885 may only leave you with an impression of the galaxy, but spare a moment longer and the intricacies of the galaxy begin to emerge. Located in the constellation of Lynx , UGC 3885 is a cosmic beauty to behold.
M51 - the Whirlpool Galaxy with supernova SN2011dh. This supernova, which is a star that explodes, occurred around May 31. This supernova is a type II supernova, which collapses under its own weight after it's nuclear fuel runs out and isn't sufficient enough to keep it stable. The compression creates a neutron core that quickly becomes degenerate and cannot take any more matter. The outer part of the star bounces off the neutron core that develops and quickly explodes it's material into space.
Taken with my 8" Ritchey-Chretien. Cropped from the full frame due to some nasty gradients and dark frame problems. Quick processing too, so a bit noisy. Also, the guiding wasn't great, so the stars are more egg-shaped, looks like a mount tune-up is in my future.
Imaging scope: Astro-Tech 8" Ritchey-Chretien
Imaging Camera: ST8300M (capture with Equinox Image)
Filters: Baader filters in FW5-8300 filter wheel
Guide scope: Astro-Tech 65 Quadruplet
Guide camera: Starfish Fishcamp (guided with PHD)
Mount: Atlas EQ-G
Calibrated in Equinox Image and processed in PixInsight.
L - 60min : 12x5min (1x1)
R - 30min: 6x5min (2x2)
G - 30min: 6x5min (2x2)
B - 25min: 5x5min (2x2)
The Andromeda galaxy is the closest spiral galaxy at 2.5 million light years away. It's the brightest far away object most people will be able to see with their naked eye. It's currently moving toward our galaxy at 80 miles / second and should collide w/ our galaxy in about 4-5 billion years.
Technicals:
Second light w/ the new TMB. Stars look sharp w/ the AT field flattener. However, color balance is a bit off from my processing. Galaxies tend to give me some color balance issues. Any tips would be appreciated!
Imaging scope: TMB 92 SS
Imaging Camera: ST8300M (capture with Equinox Image)
Filters: Baader Narrowband filters in FW5-8300 filter wheel
Guide scope: AT106
Guide camera: Starfish Fishcamp (guided with PHD)
Mount: Atlas EQ-G
Calibration in Equinox Image and processing in PixInsight.
L - 15x3min (1x1)
RGB - 9x3min (1x1 each)
The galaxy depicted in this image taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is a barred spiral known as NGC 7541, in the constellation of Pisces (the Fishes).
A barred spiral is a galaxy with whirling, pinwheeling, spiral arms, and a bright center that is intersected by a bar of gas and stars. This bar cuts directly through the galaxy’s central region, and is thought to invigorate the region somewhat, sparking activity and fueling myriad processes that may otherwise have never occurred or have previously ground to a halt (star formation and active galactic nuclei being key examples). We think bars exist in up to two-thirds of all spiral galaxies, including our own home, the Milky Way.
NGC 7541 is actually observed to have a higher-than-usual star formation rate, adding weight to the theory that spiral bars act as stellar nurseries, corralling and funneling inward the material and fuel needed to create and nurture new baby stars. This galaxy and its nearby companion NGC 7537 make up a pair of galaxies located about 110 million light-years away from us.
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2020/hubble-spies-bar-...
Text credit: ESA (European Space Agency)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al.
This swirling mass of celestial gas, dust and stars is a moderately luminous spiral galaxy named ESO 021-G004, located just under 130 million light-years away.
This galaxy has something known as an active galactic nucleus. While this phrase sounds complex, this simply means that astronomers measure a lot of radiation at all wavelengths coming from the center of the galaxy. This radiation is generated by material falling inward into the very central region of ESO 021-G004, and meeting the behemoth lurking there — a supermassive black hole. As material falls toward this black hole it is dragged into orbit as part of an accretion disk; it becomes superheated as it swirls around and around, emitting characteristic high-energy radiation until it is eventually devoured.
The data comprising this image were gathered by the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2019/hubble-views-a-ga...
Text credit: ESA (European Space Agency)
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Rosario et al.
Description: This is an image of the Needle Galaxy NGC 4565, an edge-on spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, as developed by me from a total exposure time of 6.75 hours. In order to reduce the brightness of stellar background I applied a morphological transformation in postprocessing.
Date/Location: 14, 18 February 2023 / Washington D.C.
Equipment:
Scope: WO Zenith Star 81mm f/6.9 with WO 6AIII Flattener/Focal Reducer x0.8
OSC Camera: ZWO ASI 2600 MC Pro at 100 Gain and 50 Offset
Mount: iOptron GEM28-EC
Guider: ZWO Off-Axis Guider
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI 174mm mini
Focuser: ZWO EAF
Light Pollution Filter: Chroma LoGlow Broadband
Processing Software: Pixinsight
Processing Steps:
Preprocessing: I preprocessed 81x300s subs (= 6.75 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following steps: Image Calibration > Cosmetic Correction > Subframe Selector > Debayer > Select Reference Star and Star Align > Image Integration.
Linear Postprocessing: Rotation > Dynamic Crop > Dynamic Background Extractor (both subtraction to remove light pollution gradients and division for flat field corrections) > Background Neutralization > Color Calibration > Noise Xterminator.
Nonlinear Postprocessing: First Histogram Transformation > Local Histogram Equalization > First Curves Transformation > SCNR Noise Reduction > Second Histogram Transformation > Morphological Transformation > Second Curves Transformation > Third Histogram Transformation.
Located approximately 47 million light-years away, M88 is a spiral galaxy with well-defined and symmetrical arms. Although it is a member of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, it appears in the neighboring constellation of Coma Berenices.
M88 contains an active galactic nucleus, meaning the central region of the galaxy is more luminous than the rest of the galaxy. At the galaxy’s core resides a supermassive black hole estimated to be 100 million times more massive than our Sun. M88 contains around 400 billion stars and is traveling away from our galaxy.
Charles Messier discovered M88 in 1781 on the same night that he discovered eight other Messier objects. As one of the brighter Messier galaxies, it can be observed with a pair of large binoculars from a dark location under good viewing conditions. Smaller telescopes will reveal an elongated object with a brighter core, while larger telescopes will unveil further details, such as a more defined core. M88 has a magnitude of 9.5 and is best observed in May.
This Hubble observation of the core of M88 combines visible and infrared observations obtained by the Wide Field Camera 3, and captures swirling bands of dark dust as well as clusters of stars. It was taken as part of a study of galactic bulges ― the central group of stars surrounding a spiral galaxy’s core ― focusing on the process of galaxy evolution and the growth of supermassive back holes.
For Hubble's Messier catalog website and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit: www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-messier-catalog
Credit: NASA, ESA, and P. Erwin (Max-Planck-Institut fur extraterrestrische Physik); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
M101 Spiral Galaxy found in the constellation of Ursa Major.
M: iOptron iEQ45-Pro
T: Celestron C8 SCT
C: ZWO ASI1600MC-Cooled
G: OAG and PHD2
GC: ZWO ASI220MM
RAW16; FITs
Temp: -10 DegC
Gain 139; Exp: 23 x 600s
Frames: 23 Lights
Cal Frames: DarkFlats/Flats
Total Exposure: ~3.8 hours
80% Crop
Capture: NINA
Processed: APP; PS.
Sky: 14% moon, no breeze, no cloud.
Edited NOIRLab image of the NGC1512 and NGC 1510.
Image source: noirlab.edu/public/news/noirlab2210/
Original caption: The interacting galaxy pair NGC 1512 and NGC 1510 take center stage in this image from the Dark Energy Camera, a state-of-the art wide-field imager on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of NSF’s NOIRLab. NGC 1512 has been in the process of merging with its smaller galactic neighbor for 400 million years, and this drawn-out interaction has ignited waves of star formation and warped both galaxies.