View allAll Photos Tagged SPIRALGALAXY
M109 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Ursa Major. This image was taken over a couple of clear nights from Seattle, WA in March of 2020.
Telescope: Celestron EdgeHD 8" @ f/7
Camera: QSI 683wsg
Mount: Astro-Physics Mach 1
Integration: 2.5 hours (30 x 5 mins) each of RGB
Binning: 2x2
The night sky was hazy but I could not resist having another look at the largest galaxy visible from planet Earth. A grand sight though I should redo this shot on a crystal clear night.
This is another test of the C11 equipped with hyperstar and a single pass colour camera (QHY8L).
62 subs of 120s each
La galaxie M106, dans la constellation des Chiens de Chasse à 1600 mm (équivalent à 2400 mm en 24x36: 42 photos, 10 Darks, 19 Offsets ; 14 Flats. Assemblage dans IRIS et cosmétique dans Photoshop CS4. Nikon D5300 modifié astro par Eos for Astro, Skywatcher Quattro 400 (F=800mm, D=200mm) Suivi à l'aide d'une Skywatcher EQ6-R Pro. Nikon D5300 avec filtre clip in LPS-V4-N5
Paramètres: 32x 76s F/8 ISO 4000, 1600mm.
Série prise le 01.06.2019 depuis mon balcon (la cible se trouvait au dessus de la ville, ce qui générait donc une importante pollution lumineuse).
I keep adding data from different sessions to this one. This has about 20 minutes worth of exposure added from my trip to Death Valley in December 2016. All totalled, this is over 90 minutes worth of exposures with a Celestron Edge HD 9.25" at f/2.3 with HyperStar and an Atik 314L+ color CCD. Preprocessing of images in Nebulosity; registration, alignment, stacking, and initial processing in PixInsight; final touches in PS CS 5.1.
I like how I was able to get better control over the size of the stars in this image over my previous attempts.
Image scale: 2.5" per pixel
Image center (J2000):
RA 9h 55m 49.9s
DEC +69° 19' 47"
The irregular but tightly wound spiral arms of this galaxy contain populations of young stars and many star-forming regions. This large galaxy is comparable in size to our Milky Way , containing about 1 trillion stars.
M101 lies 20 million light years distant.
This image was captured under high desert skies near Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA with a telescope of 12" aperture at f/8 and an electrically-cooled CCD camera. 7 hours total exposure (HaLRGB).
This is the largest of a group of more than thirty galaxies. The blue color of its spiral arms indicates a population of young stars. The red knots along the arms represent regions of glowing hydrogen gas where new stars are still forming. The galaxy was first discovered by Johann Elert Bode in 1774.
The galaxy lies 12 million light years distant beyond our Milky Way in the constellation Ursa Major.
This image was captured under high desert skies near Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA with a 12" SCT telescope at f/8 and an electrically-cooled CCD camera. Approximately 6 hours total exposure (HaLRGB).
At this time of year, there are lots of gatherings often decorated with festive lights. When galaxies get together, there is the chance of a spectacular light show as is the case with NGC 2207 and IC 2163
Located about 130 million light years from Earth, in the constellation of Canis Major, this pair of spiral galaxies has been caught in a grazing encounter. NGC 2207 and IC 2163 have hosted three supernova explosions in the past 15 years and have produced one of the most bountiful collections of super bright X-ray lights known. These special objects – known as “ultraluminous X-ray sources” (ULXs) – have been found using data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory.
Read more:
www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chandra/galactic-get-together-has-impressive-light-display.html
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO/S.Mineo et al, Optical: NASA/STScI, Infr
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!
_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
NGC 7479 è una galassia spirale barrata nella costellazione del Pegaso, distante dalla Terra 105 milioni di anni luce.
Ha dimensioni apparenti di 4.1’x3.1’, cioè circa 15 volte più piccola del diametro apparente della Luna piena vista ad occhio nudo; la sua magnitudine visuale è di 11.6, quindi può essere scorta anche con un telescopio amatoriale di media potenza, ma ovviamente non mostra tutti i dettagli visibili su fotografie a lunga esposizione.
La sua forma asimmetrica è dovuta ad una collisione con un’altra galassia avvenuta centinaia di milioni di anni fa.
Dati tecnici di ripresa:
Telescopio: Schmidt- Cassegrain Celestron C9,25HD diametro 235mm, focale 2350mm
Sensore: CCD Atik 4000 @-20C, filtri Baader LRGB
Esposizione complessiva: 307’, cosi’ suddivisi:
- Luminanza 16 pose x 600” l’una in binning 1
- RGB 7 pose x 420” l’una per ogni canale colore in binning 2
Montatura Losmandy G11 con FS2
Luogo di ripresa: Pian dell’Armà (PV, Italia)
----------
NGC 7479 is a spiral barred galaxy in the Pegasus constellation.
It is located about 105 million light years from Earth. Its apparent size in the sky is 4.1’x3.1’, that is about 15 times smaller than the apparent diameter of full Moon seen with naked eye; the apparent magnitude is 11.6, so it can be seen also with a medium size amateur telescope, but obviously it does not show all the details visible with a long exposure photo.
Its asymmetric shape is due to the collision with another galaxy happened about a hundred million of years ago.
Technical data:
Telescope: Schmidt- Cassegrain Celestron C9,25HD, diameter 235mm, focal lenght 2350mm
Sensor: CCD Atik 4000 @-20C, Baader LRGB filters
Total exposure: 307’, so composed:
- Luminance 16 exposures x 600” each, binning 1
- RGB 7 exposures x 420” for each color channel, binning 2
Mount Losmandy G11 con FS2
Location: Pian dell’Armà (Northern Italy)
A 10 milioni di anni luce da noi, nella costellazione della Giraffa, NGC 2403 si distingue per la sua struttura “flocculenta”: al posto delle braccia a spirale ben definite, sfoggia una miriade di nodi di formazione stellare sparsi e luminosi, che le conferiscono un aspetto granuloso e irregolare. Dalla città è un oggetto molto debole: la sua luce, già esile per via della distanza, è ancor più velata dal bagliore dell’inquinamento luminoso, eppure riesce comunque a raggiungerci dopo un viaggio cosmico iniziato quando sulla Terra non esistevano ancora gli esseri umani.
Le galassie sono isole di materia nel vuoto cosmico: splendono le une per le altre, ma restano eternamente separate, come fari lontani in un oceano senza rive.
Ripresa con SkyWatcher 200/1000, camera ASI 533 MC e filtro SV 260. Integrazione totale: 60 minuti.
#NGC2403 #galassiaflocculenta #spiralgalaxy #deepSky #astrofotografia #astrophotography #universoincanto #cosmicwonder #cacciatoriDiGalassie #spacephotography #nightskyhunter #skywatcher2001000 #ASI533MC #SV260filter #isoleCosmiche #cosmicislands #longexposure #deepSkyAstro #stelleelontano #galassienellospazio
One of the brightest galaxies in the sky, M81 or Bodes Galaxy, named after astronomer Johann Bode who discovered it in 1774. Located in the constellation Ursa Major, this lovely spiral galaxy has new stars forming causing the gases to glow pink and also young hot blue stars in its outer arms, much like our own Milky Way but half our size. It has a large bright yellow nucleus where stars are much closer together and hosts a super massive black hole. It is about 12 million light-years away, so it took 12 million years for its light to reach us.
Technical details:
Telescope: Ceravolo300 at F/4.9
Camera: SBIG Aluma 694
Filters: Astrodon LRGB and Ha
L: R: G: B: Ha: 3.8: 3.2: 3.2: 3.2: .8 hours - total 14.5 hours
Location: private observatory, BC, Canada
Processed in Pixinsight and PS
Three Messier List galaxies in Leo - top left are spiral galaxies Messier 95 and 96 from L to R.
Then bottom R is a group of 3 galaxies. Messier 105 is the more globular elliptical galaxy. NGC 3384 is the elongated elliptical beside it and small spiral NGC3389 completes that grouping.
System 1 Scope:
Camera: QHY600M 16-Bit CMOS, Binned x2
Optics: Takahashi FSQ130
Aperture: 130mm
Focal Length: 650mm
Focal Ratio: F5
Guiding: Stellarvue 50mm
This image of the Pinwheel Galaxy, or also known as M101, combines data in the infrared, visible, ultraviolet and X-rays from four of NASA's space-based telescopes. This multi-spectral view shows that both young and old stars are evenly distributed along M101's tightly-wound spiral arms. Such composite images allow astronomers to see how features in one part of the spectrum match up with those seen in other parts. It is like seeing with a regular camera, an ultraviolet camera, night-vision goggles and X-ray vision, all at the same time.
The Pinwheel Galaxy is in the constellation of Ursa Major (also known as the Big Dipper). It is about 70 percent larger than our own Milky Way Galaxy, with a diameter of about 170,000 light years, and sits at a distance of 21 million light years from Earth. This means that the light we're seeing in this image left the Pinwheel Galaxy about 21 million years ago - many millions of years before humans ever walked the Earth.
The hottest and most energetic areas in this composite image are shown in purple, where the Chandra X-ray Observatory observed the X-ray emission from exploded stars, million-degree gas, and material colliding around black holes.
The red colors in the image show infrared light, as seen by the Spitzer Space Telescope. These areas show the heat emitted by dusty lanes in the galaxy, where stars are forming.
The yellow component is visible light, observed by the Hubble Space Telescope. Most of this light comes from stars, and they trace the same spiral structure as the dust lanes seen in the infrared.
The blue areas are ultraviolet light, given out by hot, young stars that formed about one million years ago, captured by the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX).
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2012/m101/
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; IR & UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech; Optical: NASA/STScI
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!
_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
Data taken from two separate imaging sessions - hydrogen alpha data on 2021-01-01 and RGB data on 2021-03-16. This is a smaller spiral galaxy at only 50,000 light years in diameter. That puts its stellar population at about half the diameter of our own Milky Way Galaxy. Most of the recent publications that I have found on NGC 2403 put it at a distance of about 11 million light years away. It is an outlying member of the galaxy group that contains M81 and M82. A Type IIP supernova was observed in this galaxy in 2004.
All data taken from Long Beach, CA with a Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with HyperStar. RGB data was taken with an Atik 314L+ color CCD with light pollution filter; Hα data taken with an Atik 414-EX monochrome camera with 7 nm bandpass hydrogen alpha filter. Preprocessing of images in Nebulosity; registration, stacking, channel combination, and processing in PixInsight. Final touches in Photoshop.
If your really want to dive into stellar populations in this galaxy, check out Hubble Space Telescope proposal 10915 - archive.stsci.edu/proposal_search.php?id=10915&missio... You can get a much closer look at stars in this galaxy as well as others in the M81 group.
NASA image release October 19, 2010
Though the universe is chock full of spiral-shaped galaxies, no two look exactly the same. 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. This color image is composed of exposures taken by the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), and the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). The observations were taken between March 2000 and August 2009. The rich color range comes from the fact that the galaxy was photographed invisible and near-infrared light. Also used was a filter that isolates hydrogen emission that emanates from bright star-forming regions dotting the spiral arms.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. in Washington, D.C.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: A. Riess (STScI)
NASA Goddard Space Flight Center enables NASA’s mission through four scientific endeavors: Earth Science, Heliophysics, Solar System Exploration, and Astrophysics. Goddard plays a leading role in NASA’s accomplishments by contributing compelling scientific knowledge to advance the Agency’s mission.
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The sparkling spiral galaxy gracing this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is UGC 5460, which sits about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major. This image combines four different wavelengths of light to reveal UGC 5460’s central bar of stars, winding spiral arms, and bright blue star clusters. Also captured in the upper left-hand corner is a far closer object: a star just 577 light-years away in our own galaxy.
UGC 5460 has hosted two recent supernovae: SN 2011ht and SN 2015as. It’s because of these two stellar explosions that Hubble targeted this galaxy, collecting data for three observing programs that aim to study various kinds of supernovae.
SN 2015as was as a core-collapse supernova: a cataclysmic explosion that happens when the core of a star far more massive than the Sun runs out of fuel and collapses under its own gravity, initiating a rebound of material outside the core. Hubble observations of SN 2015as will help researchers understand what happens when the expanding shockwave of a supernova collides with the gas that surrounds the exploded star.
SN 2011ht might have been a core-collapse supernova as well, but it could also be an impostor called a luminous blue variable. Luminous blue variables are rare stars that experience eruptions so large that they can mimic supernovae. Crucially, luminous blue variables emerge from these eruptions unscathed, while stars that go supernova do not. Hubble will search for a stellar survivor at SN 2011ht’s location with the goal of revealing the explosion’s origin.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Jacobson-Galán, A. Filippenko, J. Mauerhan
#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAHubble #Hubble #NASAGoddard #galaxy
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 2566, which sits 76 million light-years away in the constellation Puppis. A prominent bar of stars stretches across the center of this galaxy, and spiral arms emerge from each end of the bar. Because NGC 2566 appears tilted from our perspective, its disk takes on an almond shape, giving the galaxy the appearance of a cosmic eye.
As NGC 2566 appears to gaze at us, astronomers gaze right back, using Hubble to survey the galaxy’s star clusters and star-forming regions. The Hubble data are especially valuable for studying stars that are just a few million years old; these stars are bright at the ultraviolet and visible wavelengths to which Hubble is sensitive. Using these data, researchers can measure the ages of NGC 2566’s stars, which helps piece together the timeline of the galaxy’s star formation and the exchange of gas between star-forming clouds and the stars themselves.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker
#NASAMarshall #NASA #NASAHubble #Hubble #NASAGoddard #galaxy
This Picture of the Week from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope depicts the galaxy NGC 4951, a spiral galaxy that’s located 49 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
The data used to make this image were captured by Hubble as part of a programme to examine how matter and energy travel in nearby galaxies. Galaxies continuously undergo a cycle of star formation whereby the gas in a galaxy forms molecular clouds, which collapse to create new stars, which then disperse the clouds they formed from with powerful radiation or stellar winds in a process called feedback. The remaining gas is left to form new clouds elsewhere. This cycle of moving matter and energy determines how fast a galaxy forms stars and how quickly it burns through its supplies of gas — that is, how it evolves over the course of its life. Understanding this evolution depends on the nebulae, stars and star clusters in the galaxy: when they formed and their past behaviour. Hubble has always excelled at measuring populations of stars, and the task of tracking gas and star formation in galaxies including NGC 4951 is no exception.
NGC 4951 is also a Seyfert galaxy, a type of galaxy that has a very bright and energetic nucleus called an active galactic nucleus. This image demonstrates well how energetic the galaxy is, and some of the dynamic galactic activity which transports matter and energy throughout it: a shining core surrounded by swirling arms, glowing pink star-forming regions, and thick dust.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy, tilted diagonally. It has thick, cloudy spiral arms wrapping around the core. They are filled with pink patches marking new star formation, young blue stars, and dark wisps of dust that block light. The galaxy glows brightly from its core. It is on a dark background, with a few distant galaxies and unrelated stars around it.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble); CC BY 4.0
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features a sparkling spiral galaxy paired with a prominent star, both in the constellation Virgo. While the galaxy and the star appear to be close to one another, even overlapping, they’re actually a great distance apart. The star, which is marked with four long diffraction spikes, is in our own galaxy. It’s just 7109 light-years away from Earth. The galaxy, which is named NGC 4900, lies about 45 million light-years from Earth.
This image combines data from two of Hubble’s instruments: the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which was installed in 2002 and is still in operation today, and the older Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, which was in use from 1993 to 2009. The data used here were taken more than 20 years apart for two different observing programmes — a real testament to Hubble’s long scientific lifetime!
Both programmes aimed to understand the demise of massive stars. In one, researchers studied the sites of past supernovae, aiming to estimate the masses of the stars that exploded and investigate how supernovae interact with their surroundings. NGC 4900 was selected for study because it hosted a supernova named SN 1999br.
In the other programme, researchers laid the groundwork for studying future supernovae by collecting images of more than 150 nearby galaxies. After a supernova is detected in one of these galaxies, researchers can examine these images, searching for a star at the location of the supernova. Identifying a supernova progenitor star in pre-explosion images gives valuable information about how, when and why supernovae occur.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy seen face-on. Broken spiral arms made of blue patches of stars and thin strands of dark dust swirl around the galaxy’s centre, forming a broad, circular disc. An extended circular halo surrounds the disc. The centre is a brightly-glowing, stubby bar-shaped area in a pale yellow colour. A bright star in our own galaxy, with long cross-shaped diffraction spikes, is visible atop the distant galaxy.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, S. J. Smartt, C. Kilpatrick; CC BY 4.0
Sky-Watcher 8inch reflector, eq5 GOTO
NikonD90 piggyback mounted + Tamron 70-300
15x30sec ISO6400 @300mm F5.6
2x60sec ISO6400 @300mm F5.6
2x120sec ISO6400 @300mm F5.6
20 bias frames
35 dark frames
The Andromeda Galaxy, also known as Messier 31, M31, or NGC 224, is a spiral galaxy approximately 2.5 million light-years from Earth. It is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way and estimated to contain twice the amount of stars than our own galaxy.. It received its name from the area of the sky in which it appears, the constellation of Andromeda, which was named after the mythological princess Andromeda which was Cassiopeia's daughter.
This spectacular image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures the spiral galaxy NGC 105, which lies roughly 215 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces. While it looks like NGC 105 is plunging edge-on into a neighboring galaxy, this is just a circumstance of perspective. NGC 105’s elongated neighbor is actually far more distant. Such visual associations are the result of our Earthly perspective and they occur frequently in astronomy. A good example of this are the constellations. The stars that form constellations are at vastly different distances from Earth. To us they appear to form these patterns because they are aligned along the same sightline, while an observer in another part of the galaxy would see different patterns.
Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 observations in this image are from a vast collection of Hubble measurements examining nearby galaxies that contain two fascinating astronomical phenomena – Cepheid variable stars and cataclysmic supernova explosions. While these two phenomena may appear unrelated – one is a peculiar class of pulsating stars and the other is the explosion caused by the catastrophic death of a massive star – astronomers use both to measure the vast distances to astronomical objects. Both Cepheids and supernovae have very predictable luminosities. Astronomers use these so-called “standard candles” to determine distances by comparing how bright these objects appear from Earth to their actual brightness. NGC 105 contains both supernovae and Cepheid variables, giving astronomers the opportunity to calibrate the two distance measurement techniques against one another.
Astronomers recently analyzed the distances to a sample of galaxies including NGC 105 and their velocities to measure how fast the universe is expanding – a value known as the Hubble constant. Their results don’t agree with predictions made by the most widely accepted cosmological model, and their analysis shows that there is only a 1-in-a-million chance that this discrepancy is the result of measurement errors. The difference between galaxy measurements and cosmological predictions is a long-standing source of consternation for astronomers, and these recent findings provide credible new evidence that something is either wrong or lacking in our standard model of cosmology.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Jones, A. Riess et al.; Acknowledgment: R. Colombari
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2002/hubble-sees-cosmi...
Here is a version of M33, the triangulum galaxy with a hygrogen alpha layer brought by my friend Hugo. You can view my friend work on his Instagram page, thanks to him for his help in this collaboration. We have mostly the same gear, so, making an HaRGB composition wasn't a big deal. We look forward to make more collaborations of this kind to achieve better results in our respective astrophotography.
My friend's intagram page: www.instagram.com/h.u.g.o_astro/
● Object specifications:
► Designation: M 33
► Object type: Spiral galaxy
► Stellar coordinates:
-Ra: 1h 33m 50,37s.
-DEC: +30° 39′ 40.2″.
► Distance: ~2.7M Ly.
► Constellation: Triangle.
► Magnitude: 5.72
● Gear:
► Telescope: SW 200/1000 F5
► Mount: IOptron CEM60-ec, Skywatcher Neq-6 goto
► Camera: QHY294C, ZWO asi294C
► Autoguiding: guidescope 50mm + ZWO asi
120mm, /
► Other optic(s): TS coma corrrector Maxfield 0.95X, /
► Filter(s): Optolong L-pro 2", Optolong L-ultimate 2"
● Softwares:
► Acquisition: Nina
► Autoguiding: PHD guiding 2
► Preprocessing: PixInsight
► Processing: PixInsight, Photoshop
● Data acquisition:
► total ~4H
► RGB: ~2H, 3min/sub
► Ha: ~2H, 3min/sub
Last night the Vancouver Landscape Photography Meet-up had a photowalk at Artist's Point, Washington. It was a great evening with a fantastic group and this was my first capture at 11pm..
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week features the picturesque spiral galaxy NGC 4941, which lies about 67 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo (The Maiden). Because this galaxy is nearby, cosmically speaking, Hubble’s keen instruments are able to pick out exquisite details such as individual star clusters and filamentary clouds of gas and dust.
The data used to construct this image were collected as part of an observing programme that investigates the star formation and stellar feedback cycle in nearby galaxies. As stars form in dense, cold clumps of gas, they begin to influence their surroundings. Stars heat and stir up the gas clouds in which they are born through winds, starlight, and — eventually, for massive stars — by exploding as supernovae. These processes are collectively called stellar feedback, and they impact the rate at which a galaxy can form new stars.
As it turns out, stars aren’t the only entities providing feedback in NGC 4941. At the heart of this galaxy lies an active galactic nucleus: a supermassive black hole feasting on gas. As the black hole amasses gas from its surroundings, the gas swirls into a superheated disc that glows brightly at wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum. Similar to stars — but on a much, much larger scale — active galactic nuclei shape their surroundings through winds, radiation, and powerful jets, altering not only star formation but also the evolution of the galaxy as a whole.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy seen at a diagonal angle. Its very centre is a bright white glowing orb, surrounded by an inner disc of golden light. This is wrapped in a broad outer disc that glows more dimly, with patchy, broken spiral arms swirling around it, filled with small blue and pink star clusters. Dark reddish threads of dust also spiral through the disc, with some strands reaching into the core.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker; CC BY 4.0
These two Messier objects lie quite close together, see previous image for a full frame view.
M97. The Owl planetary nebula is about 3.7 arcminutes across in our sky but is actually 0.91 light years in diameter. It lies about 2600 light years distant. The central star has shed its outer layers which glow either red (hydrogen) or green-blue (oxygen) lit by the intense UV light of the remnant white dwarf star in the centre. Eventually, the star will cool and the gas will expand until the nebula fades away. It estimated that the nebula is about 6000 years old based on its size and expansion rate. Our own Sun may eventually suffer a similar fate.
A gravitational effect has formed a constrained tube of gas near the star before it expands into a sphere. We are looking down at about 45 degrees to the axis of the tube, these effects produce an "owl face" from our perspective.
Barred spiral galaxy M108 is about 45 million light years away and is almost edge on from our perspective. It’s 8.7 x 2.2 arcminutes diameter in our sky. It lacks a prominent core or bulge but has numerous dark dust lanes. It’s possible to see
a small yellow core at its centre (yellow or red stars tend to be old and mature) brownish dust lanes, pink hydrogen alpha zones and two bright blue "stellar associations” of young intensely bright stars at this magnification.
A Type II supernovae was observed here in 1969.
Technical card on previous full frame image.
This Hubble Picture of the Week features a richness of spiral galaxies: the large, prominent spiral galaxy on the right side of the image is NGC 1356; the two apparently smaller spiral galaxies flanking it are LEDA 467699 (above it) and LEDA 95415 (very close at its left) respectively; and finally, IC 1947 sits along the left side of the image.
This image is a really interesting example of how challenging it can be to tell whether two galaxies are actually close together, or just seem to be from our perspective here on Earth. A quick glance at this image would likely lead you to think that NGC 1356, LEDA 467699 and LEDA 95415 were all close companions, whilst IC 1947 was more remote. However, we have to remember that two-dimensional images such as this one only give an indication of angular separation: that is, how objects are spread across the sphere of the night sky. What they cannot represent is the distance objects are from Earth.
For instance, whilst NGC 1356 and LEDA 95415 appear to be so close that they must surely be interacting, the former is about 550 million light-years from Earth and the latter is roughly 840 million light-years away, so there is nearly a whopping 300 million light-year separation between them. That also means that LEDA 95415 is likely nowhere near as much smaller than NGC 1356 as it appears to be.
On the other hand, whilst NGC 1356 and IC 1947 seem to be separated by a relative gulf in this image, IC 1947 is only about 500 million light-years from Earth. The angular distance apparent between them in this image only works out to less than four hundred thousand light-years, so they are actually much much closer neighbours in three-dimensional space than NGC 1356 and LEDA 95415!
[Image Description: A collection of galaxies. On the left side a large spiral galaxy with swirling, twisted arms is flanked by a smaller, but still detailed, spiral behind its arm on the left, and a smaller spiral above it. On the right side is a fourth, round spiral galaxy seen face-on. Between them lies a single bright star. Several stars and distant galaxies dot the background.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; CC BY 4.0
Acknowledgement: L. Shatz
Against an inky black backdrop, the blue swirls of spiral galaxy NGC 6956 stand out radiantly. NGC 6956 is a barred spiral galaxy, a common type of spiral galaxy with a bar-shaped structure of stars in its center. This galaxy exists 214 million light-years away in the constellation Delphinus.
Scientists used the Hubble Space Telescope to image NGC 6956 to study its Cepheid variable stars, which are stars that brighten and dim at regular periods. Since the period of Cepheid variable stars is a function of their brightness, scientists can measure how bright these stars appear from Earth and compare it to their actual brightness to calculate their distance. As a result, these stars are extremely useful in determining the distance of cosmic objects, which is one of the hardest pieces of information to measure for extragalactic objects.
This galaxy also contains a Type Ia supernova, which is the explosion of a white dwarf star that was gradually accreting matter from a companion star. Like Cepheid variable stars, the brightness of these types of supernovae and how fast they dim over time enables scientists to calculate their distance. Scientists can use the measurements gleaned from Cepheid variable stars and Type Ia supernovae to refine our understanding of the rate of expansion of the universe, also known as the Hubble Constant.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jones (University of California – Santa Cruz); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
For more information, visit: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-captures-m...
Editor's note: this pretty image is a rotated and cropped version of the original, located here: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2012/m83/. A nice one from Chandra!
NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory has discovered an extraordinary outburst by a black hole in the spiral galaxy M83, located about 15 million light years from Earth. Using Chandra, astronomers found a new ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX), objects that give off more X-rays than most "normal" binary systems in which a companion star is in orbit around a neutron star or black hole.
On the left is an optical image of M83 from the Very Large Telescope in Chile, operated by the European Southern Observatory. On the right is a composite image showing X-ray data from Chandra in pink and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope in blue and yellow. The ULX is located near the bottom of the composite image.
In Chandra observations that spanned several years, the ULX in M83 increased in X-ray brightness by at least 3,000 times. This sudden brightening is one of the largest changes in X-rays ever seen for this type of object, which do not usually show dormant periods.
Optical images reveal a bright blue source at the position of the ULX during the X-ray outburst. Before the outburst the blue source is not seen. These results imply that the companion to the black hole in M83 is a red giant star, more than about 500 million years old, with a mass less than about four times the Sun's. According to theoretical models for the evolution of stars, the black hole should be almost as old as its companion.
Astronomers think that the bright, blue optical emission seen during the X-ray outburst must have been caused by a disk surrounding the black hole that brightened dramatically as it gained more material from the companion star.
Another highly variable ULX with an old, red star as a companion to a black hole was found recently in M31. The new ULXs in M83 and M31 provide direct evidence for a population of black holes that are much older and more volatile than those usually considered to be found in these objects.
The researchers estimate a mass range for the M83 ULX from 40 to 100 times that of the Sun. Lower masses of about 15 times the mass of the Sun are possible, but only if the ULX is producing more X-rays than predicted by standard models of how material falls onto black holes.
Evidence was also found that the black hole in this system may have formed from a star surprisingly rich in "metals", as astronomers call elements heavier than helium. The ULX is located in a region that is known, from previous observations, to be rich with metals.
Large numbers of metals increase the mass-loss rate for massive stars, decreasing their mass before they collapse. This, in turn, decreases the mass of the resulting black hole. Theoretical models suggest that with a high metal content only black holes with masses less than about 15 times that of the Sun should form. Therefore, these results may challenge these models.
This surprisingly rich "recipe" for a black hole is not the only possible explanation. It may also be that the black hole is so old that it formed at a time when heavy elements were much less abundant in M83, before seeding by later generations of supernovas. Another explanation is that the mass of the black hole is only about 15 times that of the sun.
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2012/m83/
Credit: Left image - Optical: ESO/VLT; Close-up - X-ray: NASA/CXC/Curtin University/R.Soria et al., Optical: NASA/STScI/Middlebury College/F.Winkler et al.
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2012/m83/
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!
_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
The subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope Picture of the Week is the spiral galaxy NGC 337, located about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Cetus (The Whale).
This image combines observations made at two wavelengths, highlighting the galaxy’s golden centre and blue outskirts. The golden central glow comes from older stars, while the sparkling blue edges get their colour from young stars. If Hubble had observed NGC 337 about a decade ago, the telescope would have spotted something remarkable among the hot blue stars along the galaxy’s edge: a brilliant supernova.
The supernova, named SN 2014cx, is remarkable for having been discovered nearly simultaneously in two vastly different ways: by a prolific supernova hunter, Koichi Itagaki, and by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN). ASAS-SN is a worldwide network of robotic telescopes that scans the sky for sudden events like supernovae.
Researchers have determined that SN 2014cx was a Type IIP supernova. The “Type II” classification means that the exploding star was a supergiant at least eight times as massive as the Sun. The “P” stands for plateau, meaning that after the light from the supernova began to fade, the level reached a plateau, remaining at the same brightness for several weeks or months before fading further. This type of supernova occurs when a massive star can no longer produce enough energy in its core to stave off the crushing pressure of gravity. SN 2014cx’s progenitor star is estimated to have been ten times more massive than the Sun and hundreds of times as wide. Though it has long since dimmed from its initial brilliance, researchers are still keeping tabs on this exploded star, not least through the Hubble observing programme which produced this image.
[Image Description: A barred spiral galaxy on a dark background. The galaxy’s central region is a pale colour due to older stars, contains some pale reddish threads of dust, and is brighter along a broad horizontal bar through the very centre. Off the bar come several stubby spiral arms, merging into the outer region of the disc. It is a cool blue colour and contains some bright sparkling blue spots, both indicating young hot stars.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick; CC BY 4.0
M51 is a spiral galaxy, about 30 million light years away, that is in the process of merging with a smaller galaxy seen to its upper left.
This image is part of a "quarter of galaxies" collaboration of professional and amateur astronomers that combines optical data from amateur telescopes with data from the archives of NASA missions.
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 in Cambridge, Mass., controls Chandra's science and flight operations.
Original caption/more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2014/proam/more.html
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: Detlef Hartmann; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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!
_____________________________________________
These official NASA photographs are being made available for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photographs. The photographs may not be used in materials, advertisements, products, or promotions that in any way suggest approval or endorsement by NASA. All Images used must be credited. For information on usage rights please visit: www.nasa.gov/audience/formedia/features/MP_Photo_Guidelin...
The Milky Way as viewed from the surface of an asteroid.
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is a barred spiral galaxy.
Photo credit to ESO/S Brunier via European Southern Observatory.
Edited Hubble Space Telescope image of the galaxy NGC 5921.
The lazily winding spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 5921 snake across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy lies approximately 80 million light-years from Earth, and much like our own galaxy, the Milky Way, contains a prominent bar. Roughly half of all spiral galaxies are thought to contain bars, and these bars affect their parent galaxies by fuelling star formation and affecting the motion of stars and interstellar gas. Appropriately, given NGC 5921’s serpentine spiral arms, this galaxy resides in the constellation Serpens in the northern celestial hemisphere. Serpens is the only one of the 88 modern constellations to consist of two unconnected regions — Serpens Caput and Serpens Cauda. These two regions — whose names mean the Serpent’s Head and the Serpent’s Tail, respectively — are separated by Ophiuchus, the Serpent Bearer. The scientific study behind this image was also split into two parts — observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and observations from the ground-based Gemini Observatory. These two observatories joined forces to better understand the relationship between galaxies like NGC 5921 and the supermassive black holes they contain. Hubble’s contribution to the study was to determine the masses of stars in the galaxies and also to take measurements that help calibrate the observations from Gemini. Together, the Hubble and Gemini observations provided astronomers with a census of nearby supermassive black holes in a diverse variety of galaxies.
Description: This image of spiral galaxy M33 (or NGC 598), the Triangulum Galaxy, was developed from 124x300s subs or about 10 hours of total exposure time. Of interest is the presence of the irregular-shaped nebula NGC 604, an HII region, in one of the spiral arms. Initially, I found it difficult to locate NGC 604, but once I did, I decided for future reference to identify it with a magnification inset as shown in the image.
Date / Location: 1-5 December 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 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 124x300s subs (= 10.3 hours) in Pixinsight to get an integrated image using the following process 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 and additional steps: Histogram Transformation > Local Histogram Equalization (2 cycles) > Curves Transformation (2 cycles) > SCNR Noise Reduction (2 cycles).
Against an inky black backdrop, the blue swirls of spiral galaxy NGC 6956 stand out radiantly. NGC 6956 is a barred spiral galaxy, a common type of spiral galaxy with a bar-shaped structure of stars in its center. This galaxy exists 214 million light-years away in the constellation Delphinus.
Scientists used NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope to image NGC 6956 to study its Cepheid variable stars, which are stars that brighten and dim at regular periods. Since the period of Cepheid variable stars is a function of their brightness, scientists can measure how bright these stars appear from Earth and compare it to their actual brightness to calculate their distance. As a result, these stars are extremely useful in determining the distance of cosmic objects, which is one of the hardest pieces of information to measure for extragalactic objects.
This galaxy also contains a Type Ia supernova, which is the explosion of a white dwarf star that was gradually accreting matter from a companion star. Like Cepheid variable stars, the brightness of these types of supernovae and how fast they dim over time enables scientists to calculate their distance. Scientists can use the measurements gleaned from Cepheid variable stars and Type Ia supernovae to refine our understanding of the rate of expansion of the universe, also known as the Hubble Constant.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. Jones (University of California – Santa Cruz); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-captures-m...
I haven't shot this as often as I had thought. I had some decent RGB data from a trip to Death Valley in 2015, but nothing that showed all the HII regions. I added 9 hydrogen alpha filter subframes -- shot in June 2020 -- to try to boost that. I think I just need more time on this in an upcoming spring.
Telescope: Celestron Edge HD 925 at f/2.3 with HyperStar
RGB data: 11 4 min exposures with an Atik 314L+ color one-shot
H-alpha data: 9 4 min exposures, Atik 414-EX with Atik Hα narrowband filter
Preprocessing in Nebulosity; registration, stacking, channel combination, and processing in PixInsight; final touches in Photoshop
Compilation de 12 images (2 darks) de la galaxie d'Andromède, M31. Programmes: Deepskystacker et Photoshop CS4. D4+Nikkor 200-400 F/4+ TC-14E II+ Déclencheur souple MC-30+ Monture motorisée. Expositions entre 30 et 130s.Total de 1351 secondes.
Stack of 12 images (and 2 darks) of the galaxy Andromeda (M31). Softwares: Deepskystacker and Photoshop CS4
D4+Nikkor 200-400 F/4+ TC-14E II+ Remote trigger MC-30+ Motor mount. Exposures between 30 and 130s.Total of 1351 seconds.
Spiral galaxy revealed! This is a beauty from the 2007 archives. Original release date: April 10, 2007)
A combination of space and ground-based observations, including X-ray data from Chandra, has helped reveal the nature of the so-called anomalous arms in the spiral galaxy NGC 4258 (also known as M106). These arms have been known for decades, but their origin remained mysterious to astronomers.
In visible (shown in gold) and infrared (red) light, two prominent arms emanate from the bright nucleus and spiral outward. These arms are dominated by young, bright stars, which light up the gas within the arms. But in radio (purple) and Chandra's X-ray (blue) images, two additional spiral arms are seen.
By analyzing data from XMM-Newton, Spitzer, and Chandra, scientists have confirmed earlier suspicions that the ghostly arms represent regions of gas that are being violently heated by shock waves. Previously, some astronomers had suggested that the anomalous arms are jets of particles being ejected by a supermassive black hole in nucleus of NGC 4258. But radio observations at the Very Large Array later identified another pair of jets originating in the core.
However, the jets do heat the gas in their line of travel, forming an expanding cocoon. Because the jets lie close to M106's disk, the cocoon generates shock waves and heat the gas in the disk to millions of degrees, causing it to radiate brightly in X-rays and other wavelengths.
Image credit:
X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Maryland/A.S. Wilson et al.; Optical: Pal.Obs. DSS; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech; VLA: NRAO/AUI/NSF
Read more about this image:
www.chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2007/ngc4258/
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!
Raw data processed from Liverpool Telescope public archive:
R,G,B:14,15,14x90s bin2
Telescope: Ritchey-Chrétien Cassegrain 2.0m@f/10
Camera: IO:O
The church on the hill overlooking Vik, Iceland with the Great Spiral Galaxy, Andromeda, in the background. Another sandwich, hard to keep from doing with the spiral galaxy.
Captured on a trip to Chile using a friend's 500mm RC telescope and FLI16803 CCD camera. 10 hours of LRGB data.
Last evening's shot of the Andromeda Galaxy. The image is a composite of 15 one-minute exposures at ISO 3200 and setting the f-stop back one setting to f/6.3 from the default 5.6. Seems to have made a difference in the details. Too bad the moon was rising, it was a perfect night for imaging. Temperatures stayed above the dew point during the entire session.
Observation Site: 40.8978786 N,75.8921584 W Equipment: Canon 6D, Canon EF 400mm f/5.6L USM, iOptron ZEQ25GT mount. Software: Backyard EOS v3 (camera control), Starry Night Pro v6 (mount control).
NASA image release August 10, 2010
A long-exposure Hubble Space Telescope image shows a majestic face-on spiral galaxy located deep within the Coma Cluster of galaxies, which lies 320 million light-years away in the northern constellation Coma Berenices.
The galaxy, known as NGC 4911, contains rich lanes of dust and gas near its center. These are silhouetted against glowing newborn star clusters and iridescent pink clouds of hydrogen, the existence of which indicates ongoing star formation. Hubble has also captured the outer spiral arms of NGC 4911, along with thousands of other galaxies of varying sizes. The high resolution of Hubble's cameras, paired with considerably long exposures, made it possible to observe these faint details.
NGC 4911 and other spirals near the center of the cluster are being transformed by the gravitational tug of their neighbors. In the case of NGC 4911, wispy arcs of the galaxy's outer spiral arms are being pulled and distorted by forces from a companion galaxy (NGC 4911A), to the upper right. The resultant stripped material will eventually be dispersed throughout the core of the Coma Cluster, where it will fuel the intergalactic populations of stars and star clusters.
The Coma Cluster is home to almost 1,000 galaxies, making it one of the densest collections of galaxies in the nearby universe. It continues to transform galaxies at the present epoch, due to the interactions of close-proximity galaxy systems within the dense cluster. Vigorous star formation is triggered in such collisions.
Galaxies in this cluster are so densely packed that they undergo frequent interactions and collisions. When galaxies of nearly equal masses merge, they form elliptical galaxies. Merging is more likely to occur in the center of the cluster where the density of galaxies is higher, giving rise to more elliptical galaxies.
This natural-color Hubble image, which combines data obtained in 2006, 2007, and 2009 from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys, required 28 hours of exposure time.
The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the telescope. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts Hubble science operations. STScI is operated for NASA by the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc. in Washington, D.C.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Acknowledgment: K. Cook (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)
To learn more about Hubble go to: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/main/index.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.
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This beautiful barred spiral galaxy is M109. I think this is one of the prettiest galaxies to image but it had its challenges. Located near the bright Big Dipper star Phecda ― the bottom corner of the bowl closest to the Dipper’s “handle” . I had to offset it in the acquisition and later crop the image a little as Phecda caused a lot of streaking in the top right corner. This galaxy look like our own galaxy the Milky Way which is also a barred spiral.
Technical details:
telescope: Ceravolo 300 at f/4.9
Camera: SBIG SAluma 814
Filters: Astrodo LRGB
Total 12.5 hours
Location: Personal observatory, BC, Canada
The Fireworks Galaxy is so-named because of its relatively frequent supernovae events. In the last century alone, NGC 6946 has experienced ten observed supernovae. In comparison, our Milky Way averages just one to two supernova events per century. The galaxy is a face-on, intermediate spiral galaxy - i.e., not quite a barred spiral (has a slight bar).
The galaxy is 25.2 million light-years away and is found between the constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. It is about 90,000 light-years in diameter.
Added diffraction spikes to some of the stars for a "fireworks" effect.
Date of capture: June 2, 2025
Bortle Class 5 backyard, SF Bay Area (East Bay)
Capture: 35x240sec L
Telescope: Celestron C9.25 SCT
Reducer: Starizona SCT Corrector (.63)
Camera: ZWO ASI2600MC-Pro
ZWO 7-position EFW
Filters: Astronomik L
Guide Camera: ZWO ASI174MM mini
ZWO OAG-L
Mount: iOptron GEM45
Calibrated with Darks, Flats and Dark Flats
ZWO ASIAIR Plus Control and Capture
Processed with DSS, Pleiades PixInsight and Photoshop CC
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope imaged these two overlapping spiral galaxies named SDSS J115331 and LEDA 2073461, which lie more than a billion light-years from Earth. Despite appearing to collide in this image, the alignment of the two galaxies is likely just by chance – the two are not actually interacting. While these two galaxies might simply be ships that pass in the night, Hubble has captured a dazzling array of other, truly interacting galaxies.
This image is one of many Hubble observations delving into highlights of the Galaxy Zoo project. Originally established in 2007, Galaxy Zoo and its successors are massive citizen science projects that crowdsource galaxy classifications from a pool of hundreds of thousands of volunteers. These volunteers classify galaxies imaged by robotic telescopes and are often the first to ever set eyes on an astronomical object.
Over the course of the original Galaxy Zoo project, volunteers discovered a menagerie of weird and wonderful galaxies such as unusual three-armed spiral galaxies and colliding ring galaxies. The astronomers coordinating the project applied for Hubble time to observe the most unusual inhabitants of the Galaxy Zoo – but true to the project’s crowdsourced roots, the list of targets was chosen by a public vote.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Keel
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2022/hubble-sees-two-o...
A palm tree under the Milky Way at Big Cypress National Preserve in Florida. The lights of the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters were glowing mysteriously
behind the trees.
Website: mark-andrew-thomas.pixels.com/
Image Link: mark-andrew-thomas.pixels.com/featured/galactic-highway-m...
The barred spiral galaxy UGC 678 takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The spectacular galaxy lies around 260 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces and is almost face on, allowing its lazily winding spiral arms to stretch across this image. In the foreground, a smaller edge-on galaxy seems to bisect the upper portion of UGC 678.
Barred spiral galaxies have a bar-shaped structure of stars that extends from opposite sides of the galaxy’s central bulge. Bars form in spiral galaxies when the orbits of stars near the galaxy’s heart become unstable and stretched out. As their orbits lengthen, they create a bar. The bar grows as their gravity captures more and more nearby stars. UGC 678’s bar is faint. It is visible as a diagonal group of stars that stretches from the lower left (7 o’clock) to the upper right (1 o’clock) of the galaxy’s core.
Text credit: European Space Agency (ESA)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick, R.J. Foley
For more information: www.nasa.gov/image-feature/goddard/2023/hubble-spotlights...
Just in time for Valentine's Day comes a new image of a ring -- not of jewels -- but of black holes. This composite image of Arp 147, a pair of interacting galaxies located about 430 million light years from Earth, shows X-rays from the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory (pink) and optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (red, green, blue) produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore, Md.
Arp 147 contains the remnant of a spiral galaxy (right) that collided with the elliptical galaxy on the left. This collision has produced an expanding wave of star formation that shows up as a blue ring containing in abundance of massive young stars. These stars race through their evolution in a few million years or less and explode as supernovas, leaving behind neutron stars and black holes.
A fraction of the neutron stars and black holes will have companion stars, and may become bright X-ray sources as they pull in matter from their companions. The nine X-ray sources scattered around the ring in Arp 147 are so bright that they must be black holes, with masses that are likely ten to twenty times that of the Sun.
An X-ray source is also detected in the nucleus of the red galaxy on the left and may be powered by a poorly-fed supermassive black hole. This source is not obvious in the composite image but can easily be seen in the X-ray image. Other objects unrelated to Arp 147 are also visible: a foreground star in the lower left of the image and a background quasar as the pink source above and to the left of the red galaxy.
Infrared observations with NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope and ultraviolet observations with NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) have allowed estimates of the rate of star formation in the ring. These estimates, combined with the use of models for the evolution of binary stars have allowed the authors to conclude that the most intense star formation may have ended some 15 million years ago, in Earth's time frame.
These results were published in the October 1st, 2010 issue of The Astrophysical Journal. The authors were Saul Rappaport and Alan Levine from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, David Pooley from Eureka Scientific and Benjamin Steinhorn, also from MIT.
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's science and flight operations from Cambridge, Mass.
Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/S.Rappaport et al, Optical: NASA/STScI
Read entire caption/view more images: chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2011/arp147/
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!
What lies at the heart of this unusual-looking spiral galaxy? The galaxy NGC 4102, featured in this ESA/Hubble Picture of the Week, is home to what astronomers call an active galactic nucleus. Active galactic nuclei are luminous galactic centres powered by supermassive black holes that contain millions to billion times the mass of our Sun. As these black holes ensnare gas from their surroundings and draw it close with their intense gravitational pull, the gas becomes so hot that it begins to glow and emits light from X-ray to radio wavelengths.
At a distance of just 56 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear), NGC 4102 provides an ideal opportunity to study the ways in which active galactic nuclei interact with their home galaxies. Active galactic nuclei come in many different flavours, from extremely powerful types that consume massive amounts of matter and shoot out jets of charged particles, to calmer types that sip gas from their surroundings and glow more faintly.
NGC 4102 likely falls into the latter category. It’s classified as Compton-thick — a way of saying that its nucleus is obscured by a thick layer of gas — and a LINER, or low-ionisation nuclear emission-line region. LINER galaxies are identified by emission lines from certain weakly ionised elements, and they can be powered by a supermassive black hole that is lazily collecting gas from around it.
A previous image of this galaxy, made from data taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), was released in 2014. This new version presents an upgraded view of the galaxy, using data from the Wide Field Camera 3, which replaced WFPC2 in 2009 and improved upon its resolution and field of view. The new observations come from a programme that will combine visible-light images from Hubble with X-ray information from the Chandra X-ray Observatory to study the relationship between NGC 4102 and its active galactic nucleus.
[Image Description: A spiral galaxy. The inner region immediately around the bright centre is golden in colour. A gap separates this region from a bright ring, itself surrounded by a glowing halo. Strands of dark brown dust swirl around the centre and the outer ring, joined in one spot by a curved arm. Bright, blue and pink specks of light dot the ring, showing where stars are concentrated or have recently formed.]
Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, G. Fabbiano; CC BY 4.0