View allAll Photos Tagged VirgoCluster
Added another 67 subs to this last night, so this is now 3 hrs 14 mins of 60 second subs (193 in total - never done so many!) Took a little more care over the processing as well - some star colour in there if you look closely - but not too close ;) There are at least 19 galaxies visible in this image - and a lot more that aren't :)
I think this is about as far as this one goes.
200p/EQ5 unguided
Nikon D70 modded, iso1600, Baader Neodymium Filter
193 x 60 seconds
Darks, flats and bias
Stacked and processed in DSS and CS5
A portion of Markarian's chain, a stretch of galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Cluster. The Virgo Cluster comprises of approximately 1300 (and possibly up to 2000) member galaxies and its centre is approximately 53.8 million light years away. It forms the heart of the larger Virgo Supercluster, of which the Local Group (containing our Milky Way galaxy) is a member. In this image, there are at least 21 galaxies. I did make an annotated version but the annotation distracts from the beauty of all those galaxies but left to right they are: NGC 4473, IC 3420, NGC 4463, NGC 4458, IC 3393, IC 3388, IC 3386, NGC 4438, NGC 4435, NGC 4425, IC 3363, IC 3355, IC 3349, NGC 4403, NGC 4406 (M86), IC 3333, NGC 4402, NGC 4388, NGC 4387, IC 3303, NGC 3474 (M84).
015 x 300 second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C
050 x dark frames
020 x flat frames
100 x bias frames (subtracted from flat frames)
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 1 hour 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 ASI120MC
Imaging Camera: ZWO ASI1600MC Pro
Baader Mark-III MPCC Coma Corrector
Light pollution filter
M89 is one of eight galaxies in the Virgo cluster that Charles Messier discovered in 1781. An elliptical galaxy, M89 is almost exactly circular. It is located about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo.
M89 contains approximately 100 billion stars and well over 2,000 globular clusters. It was the first galaxy discovered to have an extended envelope, which means that it has a larger region of light surrounding it than other elliptical galaxies, most likely because of its high number of stars and globular clusters. At the center of M89 is a supermassive black hole estimated to have one billion times the mass of our Sun.
This image combines Hubble observations of M89 taken in near-infrared and visible light using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. It features most of the galaxy, with M89's bright central nucleus at the top right of the image and many of its globular clusters appearing as star-like points of light throughout the field. The image also captures a separate edge-on spiral galaxy below M89's core. These Hubble observations were taken to help determine the structure and formation of elliptical galaxies, as well as searching for evidence of black holes in the hearts of these galaxies.
Telescopes that are 8 inches or larger can see the 9.8-magnitude galaxy as a faint ball of light. The best time to view M89 is in May.
Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI, and M. Franx (Universiteit Leiden) and S. Faber (University of California, Santa Cruz)
NGC 4394 is the archetypal barred spiral galaxy, with bright spiral arms emerging from the ends of a bar that cuts through the galaxy's central bulge. These arms are peppered with young blue stars, dark filaments of cosmic dust, and bright, nebulous regions of active star formation. At the center of NGC 4394 lies a region of gas known as a low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINER).
LINERs are active regions that display a characteristic set of emission lines in their spectra — mostly from atoms of oxygen, nitrogen, and sulphur that are weakly ionized. Although LINER galaxies are relatively common, it's still unclear where the energy comes from to ionize the gas. In most cases it is thought to be the influence of a black hole at the center of the galaxy, but it could also be the result of a high level of star formation.
In the case of NGC 4394, it is likely that gravitational interaction with a nearby neighbor has caused gas to flow into the galaxy's central region, providing a new reservoir of material to fuel the black hole or to make new stars.
NGC 4394 is found in the constellation Coma Berenices, and as a member of the Virgo cluster of galaxies is about 40 million light-years away.
For more information, visit: www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1618a/
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA;
Acknowledgment: Judy Schmidt
Description:
The Virgo Galaxy Cluster contains around 1300 galaxies, including those more prominently displayed in this frame. M100, M99 and M98 are the brighter galaxies here and are some 45-55 million light years distant. Many background galaxies can also be found.
Details:
Scope: Astro-Physics 92mm Stowaway @f/5.3
Reducer: Astro-Physics 0.8x telecompressor
Camera: QHY16200A
Guide Camera: ASI174MM Mini
Mount: Mach1 GTO
RGB: 87x5min total
Software: Voyager, PHD2, APCC, Pixinsight
7.2 hrs total exposure
In my quest to complete the Messier Objects, I recently pointed the wide-angle lens at the Virgo Cluster and captured this image in 15 frames for a total of 22 minutes (taken on March 21, 2014). This is a work in progress and additional time will be added as Virgo moves higher in the spring sky. Literature mentions there could be up to 2000 galaxies in this cluster, the image shows a sampling down to about magnitude 16. I have only identified some of the “brighter” galaxies. The image is shown in reverse to aid in the identification process and makes the fainter galaxies stand out.
NGC 4762 is an edge-on galaxy in the constellation Virgo. It is at a distance of 60 million light-years and is a member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies.
Previously thought to be a barred spiral galaxy, NGC 4762 has since been found to be a lenticular galaxy, a kind of intermediate step between an elliptical and a spiral. The edge-on view of this peculiar galaxy makes it difficult to determine its true shape, but astronomers have found the galaxy to consist of four main components — a central bulge, a bar, a thick disk, and an outer ring.
The galaxy's disk is asymmetric and warped, which could potentially be explained by NGC 4762 colliding with a smaller galaxy in the past. The remains of this former companion may then have settled within NGC 4762's disk, redistributing the gas and stars and changing the disk's morphology. NGC 4762 also contains a highly energetic nucleus.
For more information, visit: www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1443a/
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Located in the constellation Virgo, M86 is either an elliptical galaxy or a lenticular galaxy (a cross between an elliptical and spiral galaxy). This Hubble observation of M86 was taken in near-infrared and visible light using the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Featuring about half of the galaxy, it shows the bright central nucleus and surrounding regions of light. The image also reveals globular clusters in M86 (shown as points of light) and an edge-on galaxy (found to the lower left of M86's core).
M86 was discovered in 1781 by Charles Messier and is one of the brightest members of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. It contains approximately 3,800 globular clusters.
While the majority of the Virgo cluster is receding from the Milky Way, M86 is getting closer to our galaxy. This is because M86 is located on the far side of the Virgo cluster from us and is moving toward the center of the cluster. Of all the galaxies in Messier's catalog, M86 is moving the fastest in our direction but is still approximately 52 million light-years away from Earth.
The best time of the year to view M86 is during May. Having a magnitude of 9.2, M86 can be seen near fellow galaxies in the Virgo cluster with binoculars and small telescopes, with M84 often appearing alongside M86 in the field of view. Telescopes that are 8 inches or larger will reveal several other, fainter galaxies in the same field of view.
Hubble took these observations to help astronomers study the cores of early-type galaxies, which are often old elliptical or lenticular galaxies found toward the centers of galaxy clusters. By studying the cores of these galaxies, astronomers can determine their central structure and analyze both the history of the galaxy and the formation of its core.
Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI, and S. Faber (University of California, Santa Cruz) and P. Côté (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory)
This Hubble observation of spiral galaxy M88 was taken with the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 using a single visible-light filter. With Hubble, observations in multiple filters are needed to produce color images, so this image of nearly half the galaxy is in black and white.
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
Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI and M. Stiavelli (STScI)
THE CELESTIAL ZOO is a tour of 210 places of interest in our Universe, describing each landscape with curious facts that are a must-know when planning our trips through the Cosmos. Featuring the most bizarre galaxies, stars, planets, and other weirdos of all colors and shapes. The information contained is updated as of July 2020.
The circular view of the universe in the middle was assembled by Pablo Carlos Budassi by combining logarithmic astronomical maps from Princeton University and images from NASA.
Using this image as a map and the accumulated knowledge of 400 years of modern astronomy, we will spend a couple of minutes in each known world and if we come out alive, we will have the most up-to-date knowledge about the celestial wildlife and maybe, in the next trip, we can be the tour guides ourselves.
Last chance: Take flight or go extinct! ✨✨✨🚀
🔭 GET THE CELESTIAL ZOO HD Poster 👉 bit.ly/thecelestialzooposter
GET a Photographic Print 👉 bit.ly/thecelestialzooprint
DOWNLOAD in HD to print yourself or to remix 👉 payhip.com/b/QE8F
This is an inverse version of my M50 and M60 image. I've posted this for those who like looking for faint galaxies. My own searches have identified galaxies down to mag 19 which I find remarkable for an 8-inch scope.
Enjoy.
Out of this world public domain images from NASA. All original images and many more can be found from the NASA Image Library
Higher resolutions with no attribution required can be downloaded: www.rawpixel.com/board/418580/nasa
Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys took this striking image of galaxy NGC 4452, which appears to lie exactly edge-on as seen from Earth. This amazing object, which lies in constellation Virgo, was first seen by William Herschel in 1784 from England. He described the object as a bright nebula, small and very much elongated. The Hubble image shows just how elongated this unusual object truly is.
NGC 4452, thought to be a lenticular galaxy, is a member of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies. This enormous grouping is approximately 60 million light-years distant and contains around 2000 members.
For more information, visit: www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1029a/
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Managed to drag myself out over the last couple of nights. We've had several clear skies on the trot, but I've been too knackered. Very clear last night, and I wasn't intending to stay up until stupid a.m., but felt I had no choice :)
This is just over 2 hours in 60 second chunks, and is an improvement on last years effort, albeit a tad blotchy in places. May give this another go when I get the time.
200p/EQ5 unguided
Nikon D70 modded, iso1600, Baader Neodymium Filter
126 x 60 seconds
Darks, flats and bias
Stacked and processed in DSS and CS5
This image of M98 was taken in 1995 with Hubble's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. Its stair-step pattern results from the design of the camera. These observations were taken in infrared and visible light and feature a portion of the galaxy near the central core. Although it is a member of the Virgo cluster of galaxies, M98 appears in the neighboring constellation of Coma Berenices. Hubble's observations of M98 were part of an examination of the cores of galaxies in the Virgo cluster.
M98 contains about a trillion stars as well as an abundance of neutral hydrogen gas and interstellar dust. Because of the high amounts of gas and dust, there are numerous star-forming regions in the galaxy, especially in its nucleus and arms. The nucleus itself is "active," meaning that the center of the galaxy is more luminous than the rest of the galaxy. M98 is located approximately 44 million light-years away and is traveling toward our Milky Way galaxy.
M98 was discovered in 1781 by Pierre Méchain, a colleague of Charles Messier, and is one of the faintest objects in Messier's catalog. It has a magnitude of 10.1, and observers will need at least a medium-sized telescope to see M98 well. The best time to observe this galaxy is in May.
Credits: NASA, ESA, STScI and V. Rubin (Carnegie Institution of Washington)
The Fireworks Galaxy (also known as NGC 6946) is a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with a small bright nucleus, located 25.2 million light-years away from Earth between the northern constellations of Cepheus and Cygnus. It is part of the Virgo Supercluster but not part of the Local Group. On Wikipedia, there is a debate about the diameter of NGC 6946 with the article claiming it's 40,000 light-years in diameter, while a professional researcher in extragalactic astrophysics claims the diameter is around 70,000 light-years. I measured it using the given distance (which isn't being debated) and found it to be 66,590 light-years, close to the astrophysicist's measurement. NGC 6946 contains roughly half the number of stars as the Milky Way. It is heavily obscured by interstellar matter due to its location close to the galactic plane of the Milky Way, making it challenging to image in detail. Due to its prodigious star formation, it has been classified as an active starburst galaxy. Ten supernovae have been observed in NGC 6946 in the 20th and early 21st century, the most recent occurring in May 2017. This is about ten times the rate observed in our Milky Way galaxy leading some to refer to it as the Fireworks Galaxy.
16/07/2021
030 x 300-second exposures at Unity Gain (139) cooled to -20°C (approx)
050 x dark frames
035 x flat frames
100 x bias frames
Binning 1x1
Total integration time = 2 hours and 30 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
Messier 59 (M59) is one of the largest elliptical galaxies in the Virgo galaxy cluster. However, it is still considerably less massive, and at a magnitude of 9.8, less luminous than other elliptical galaxies in the cluster.
A supermassive black hole around 270 million times as massive as the Sun resides at the center of M59. The galaxy also has an inner disk of stars and around 2,200 globular star clusters, an exceptionally high number of such clusters. The central region of the galaxy, the inner 200 light-years, rotates in the opposite direction than the rest of the galaxy and is the smallest region in a galaxy known to exhibit this behavior.
Both Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 contributed to this view, producing a multi-wavelength image in ultraviolet, near-infrared, and visible light. About half of M59 can be seen in this image, as well as some of the galaxy’s globular clusters (appearing as bright points of light).
For more information, visit: www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2018/messier-59
Credit: NASA, ESA, STScI, W. Jaffe (Sterrewacht Leiden), and P. Côté (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory)
LRGB image of the Markarian's chain of galaxies on the border of Virgo and Coma Berenices.
The image is mirrored left-to-right compared to sky.
Total integration time 15h15m,
L: 185 minutes
R: 269 minutes
G: 226 minutes
B: 234 minutes
with 5, 10 and 20 minute subs.
Telescopes used: WilliamOptics FLT-110 with 0.8x mkIV reducer, TS-Quad 65mm Petzval.
A wide-field mosaic of a section of Markarian's Chain, a chain of Galaxies that forms part of the Virgo Supercluster (a cluster of a several thousand Galaxies, 60 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Virgo). When viewed from Earth, the Galaxies lie along a curved line.
The Virgo Supercluster (Virgo SC) or the Local Supercluster (LSC or LS) is a mass concentration of Galaxies containing the Virgo Cluster and Local Group, which in turn contains the Milky Way and Andromeda Galaxies. At least 100 Galaxy groups and clusters are located within its diameter of 33 megaparsecs (110 million light-years). The Virgo SC is one of about 10 million superclusters in the Observable Universe and is in the Pisces–Cetus Supercluster Complex, a Galaxy Filament.
About this image:
Imaged in LRGB over several sessions in July 2019 from the Southern Hemisphere.
Image Acquisition & Plate Solving:
SGP Mosaic and Framing Wizard.
PlaneWave PlateSolve 2 via SGP.
Integration time:
18 hours.
Processing:
Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight,
and finished in Photoshop.
Astrometry Info:
Center RA, Dec: 187.055, 12.888
Center RA, hms: 12h 28m 13.184s
Center Dec, dms: +12° 53' 17.123"
Size: 3.26 x 2.5 deg
Radius: 2.054 deg
Pixel scale: 7.33 arcsec/pixel
Orientation: Up is 88.3 degrees E of N
View an Annotated Sky Chart of this image.
View this image in the WorldWideTelescope.
&creditsUrl=&ra=187.536744&dec=12.032357&x=1214.0&y=370.9&rotation=91.70&thumb=http://nova.astrometry.net/image/7121763){kind=link}
Martin
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Original image and more info:
This is part of the larger Virgo cluster, and contains giants M84 and M86 (upper center), as well as NGC 4477, NGC 4473, NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4438 and NGC 4435. The massive galaxy M87 is at lower right. Galaxies 4438 and 4435 just above center are interacting, which causes the irregular shape - these are sometimes known as the eyes galaxies.
Taken with the Canon 50D at ISO 1600 (and some at ISO 800) at 400 mm, f/5.6. About a hour's worth of exposure.
Around 3:00AM this morning, from my suburban home, under a clear-night sky, I pointed the 155mm refractor towards the heart of the Virgo Cluster. I was pleased that I could visually make out 5 of the 9 galaxies that I can see, using the same telescope, from a dark site. I have observed this section of the sky, from home, many times before. Usually I can only make out the galaxies M84 and M86 from my light-polluted site. But this morning, the Eyes Galaxies (NGC 4488 & NGC 4435) were visible and with a little additional effort, I was able to add the galaxy NGC 4388 to the drawing as well.
It’s easy to get swept up in the swirling starry arms of this intermediate spiral galaxy, NGC 4654, in the constellation Virgo. The galaxy has a bright center and is labeled “intermediate” because it has characteristics of both unbarred and barred spirals. NGC 4654 is just north of the celestial equator, making it visible from the northern hemisphere and most of the southern hemisphere. The galaxy is around 55 million light-years from Earth.
NGC 4654 is one of many Virgo Cluster galaxies that have an asymmetric distribution of stars and of neutral hydrogen gas. Astronomers reason that NGC 4654 may be experiencing a process called “ram pressure stripping,” where the gravitational pull of the Virgo galaxy cluster puts pressure on NGC 4654 as it moves through a superheated plasma made largely of hydrogen called the “intracluster medium.” This pressure feels like a gust of wind – think of a biker feeling wind even on a still day – that strips NGC 4654 of its gas. This process produced a long, thin tail of hydrogen gas on the galaxy’s southeastern side. Most galaxies that experienced ram pressure stripping hold very little cold gas, halting the galaxy’s ability to form new stars, since stars generate from dense gas. However, NGC 4654 has star formation rates consistent with other galaxies of its size.
NGC 4654 also had an interaction with the companion galaxy NGC 4639 about 500 million years ago. The gravity of NGC 4639 stripped NGC 4654’s gas along its edge, limiting star formation in that region and causing the asymmetrical distribution of the galaxy’s stars.
Scientists study galaxies like NGC 4654 to examine the connection between young stars and the cold gas from which they form. NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took this image in visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light.
Credit: NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, ESA, and J. Lee (Space Telescope Science Institute); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
For more on Hubble's Galaxies, visit: science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/hubble-news/hubbles-galax...
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope of the galaxy Messier 87, home of the black hole whose event horizon was imaged recently. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87), the home galaxy of the supermassive black hole recently imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Spitzer's infrared view shows a faint trace of a jet of material spewing to the right of the galaxy - a feature that was previously one key indicator that a supermassive black hole lived at the galaxy's center.
More prominent in the image is the shockwave created by that jet. The inset in the image below shows a close-up view of the shockwave on the right side of the galaxy, as well as the shockwave from a second jet traveling to the left of the galaxy.
Located about 55 million light-years from Earth, M87 has been a subject of astronomical study for more than 100 years and has been imaged by many NASA observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and NuSTAR. In 1918, astronomer Heber Curtis first noticed "a curious straight ray" extending from the galaxy's center. This bright jet (which appears to extend to the right of the galaxy) is visible in multiple wavelengths of light, from radio waves through X-rays. The jet is produced by a disk of material spinning rapidly around the black hole, and spewing in opposite directions away from the galaxy. When the particles in the jet impact the interstellar medium (the sparse material filling the space between stars in M87), they create a shockwave that radiates in infrared and radio wavelengths of light, but not visible light.
The jet on the right is traveling almost directly toward Earth, and its brightness is amplified due to its high speed in our direction. But the jet's trajectory is just slightly offset from our line of sight with the galaxy, so we can still see some of the length of the jet. The shockwave begins around the point where the jet appears to curve down, highlighting the regions where the fast-moving particles are colliding with gas in the galaxy and slowing down.
There is also a second jet on the left that is moving so rapidly away from us it is rendered invisible at all wavelengths. But the shockwave it creates in the interstellar medium can still be seen here. In the Spitzer image, the shockwave is on the left side of the galaxy and looks like an inverted letter "C."
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows M87 looks like a hazy, blue space-puff. At the galaxy's center is a supermassive black hole that spews two jets of material out into space. This image shows a wide-field image of M87, also taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Scientists are still striving for a solid theoretical understanding of how inflowing gas around black holes creates outflowing jets.
Infrared light at wavelengths of 3.4 and 4.5 microns are rendered in blue and green, showing the distribution of stars, while dust features that glow brightly at 8.0 microns are shown in red.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in Pasadena. Space operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
C14, Hyperstar, Canon 450D/XSi, BackyardEOS.
30x30 seconds @ ISO 400, 30 darks, 100 bias/offsets, no flats, no guiding.
Processed with PixInsight.
Just a test to check the light pollution toward the North.
41x30s 180mm f/2.8 D7000 home-made arduino-driven german mount
stacked with exposit
fall-off correction (whites)
no noise correction
NGC4450
NGC4384
M85/NGC4382
NGC4293
M100/NGC4321
NGC4312
Annotated Spitzer Space Telescope image of the galaxy Messier 87.
Original caption: This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87), the home galaxy of the supermassive black hole recently imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Spitzer's infrared view shows a faint trace of a jet of material spewing to the right of the galaxy - a feature that was previously one key indicator that a supermassive black hole lived at the galaxy's center.
More prominent in the image is the shockwave created by that jet. The inset in the image below shows a close-up view of the shockwave on the right side of the galaxy, as well as the shockwave from a second jet traveling to the left of the galaxy.
Located about 55 million light-years from Earth, M87 has been a subject of astronomical study for more than 100 years and has been imaged by many NASA observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and NuSTAR. In 1918, astronomer Heber Curtis first noticed "a curious straight ray" extending from the galaxy's center. This bright jet (which appears to extend to the right of the galaxy) is visible in multiple wavelengths of light, from radio waves through X-rays. The jet is produced by a disk of material spinning rapidly around the black hole, and spewing in opposite directions away from the galaxy. When the particles in the jet impact the interstellar medium (the sparse material filling the space between stars in M87), they create a shockwave that radiates in infrared and radio wavelengths of light, but not visible light.
The jet on the right is traveling almost directly toward Earth, and its brightness is amplified due to its high speed in our direction. But the jet's trajectory is just slightly offset from our line of sight with the galaxy, so we can still see some of the length of the jet. The shockwave begins around the point where the jet appears to curve down, highlighting the regions where the fast-moving particles are colliding with gas in the galaxy and slowing down.
There is also a second jet on the left that is moving so rapidly away from us it is rendered invisible at all wavelengths. But the shockwave it creates in the interstellar medium can still be seen here. In the Spitzer image, the shockwave is on the left side of the galaxy and looks like an inverted letter "C."
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows M87 looks like a hazy, blue space-puff. At the galaxy's center is a supermassive black hole that spews two jets of material out into space. This image shows a wide-field image of M87, also taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. The inset shows a close-up of two shockwaves, created by a jet emanating from the galaxy's supermassive black hole.
Scientists are still striving for a solid theoretical understanding of how inflowing gas around black holes creates outflowing jets.
Infrared light at wavelengths of 3.4 and 4.5 microns are rendered in blue and green, showing the distribution of stars, while dust features that glow brightly at 8.0 microns are shown in red.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in Pasadena. Space operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
[crosseye stereograph, see 3D with your right eye on the left image, and left on right.]
What an Eraserhead! Imagine all the objects in the universe. Now imagine only the ones you could see if you blocked out all the others by only looking one single tiny spot in the sky, through a drinking straw. Albert Einstein's bronze statue is posed to demonstrate "The Eraser View" of the sample of objects which exist within the universe projected from the narrow angle of his fingernail held at arm's length covering the darkest patch of sky. That collection of astronomical objects, as captured by Hubble Space Telescope in one long exposure, a tiny fraction of the luminous objects close enough to see, is represented on the wall in the background so you can imagine "The Big Picture."
dsc00021, 2010.01.17 17.12, 3D, Los Angeles, Griffith Park, Griffith Observatory, Gunther Depths of Space, Albert Einstein and "The Big Picture"
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope of the galaxy Messier 87, home of the black hole whose event horizon was imaged recently. Color/processing variant.
Original caption: This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87), the home galaxy of the supermassive black hole recently imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Spitzer's infrared view shows a faint trace of a jet of material spewing to the right of the galaxy - a feature that was previously one key indicator that a supermassive black hole lived at the galaxy's center.
More prominent in the image is the shockwave created by that jet. The inset in the image below shows a close-up view of the shockwave on the right side of the galaxy, as well as the shockwave from a second jet traveling to the left of the galaxy.
Located about 55 million light-years from Earth, M87 has been a subject of astronomical study for more than 100 years and has been imaged by many NASA observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and NuSTAR. In 1918, astronomer Heber Curtis first noticed "a curious straight ray" extending from the galaxy's center. This bright jet (which appears to extend to the right of the galaxy) is visible in multiple wavelengths of light, from radio waves through X-rays. The jet is produced by a disk of material spinning rapidly around the black hole, and spewing in opposite directions away from the galaxy. When the particles in the jet impact the interstellar medium (the sparse material filling the space between stars in M87), they create a shockwave that radiates in infrared and radio wavelengths of light, but not visible light.
The jet on the right is traveling almost directly toward Earth, and its brightness is amplified due to its high speed in our direction. But the jet's trajectory is just slightly offset from our line of sight with the galaxy, so we can still see some of the length of the jet. The shockwave begins around the point where the jet appears to curve down, highlighting the regions where the fast-moving particles are colliding with gas in the galaxy and slowing down.
There is also a second jet on the left that is moving so rapidly away from us it is rendered invisible at all wavelengths. But the shockwave it creates in the interstellar medium can still be seen here. In the Spitzer image, the shockwave is on the left side of the galaxy and looks like an inverted letter "C."
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows M87 looks like a hazy, blue space-puff. At the galaxy's center is a supermassive black hole that spews two jets of material out into space. This image shows a wide-field image of M87, also taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Scientists are still striving for a solid theoretical understanding of how inflowing gas around black holes creates outflowing jets.
Infrared light at wavelengths of 3.4 and 4.5 microns are rendered in blue and green, showing the distribution of stars, while dust features that glow brightly at 8.0 microns are shown in red.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in Pasadena. Space operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
This new Hubble image shows galaxy cluster Abell 1689. It combines both visible and infrared data from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) with a combined exposure time of over 34 hours (image on left over 13 hours, image on right over 20 hours) to reveal this patch of sky in greater and striking detail than in previous observations. This image is peppered with glowing golden clumps, bright stars, and distant, ethereal spiral galaxies. Material from some of these galaxies is being stripped away, giving the impression that the galaxy is dripping, or bleeding, into the surrounding space. Also visible are a number of electric blue streaks, circling and arcing around the fuzzy galaxies in the centre. These streaks are the telltale signs of a cosmic phenomenon known as gravitational lensing. Abell 1689 is so massive that it bends and warps the space around it, affecting how light from objects behind the cluster travels through space. These streaks are the distorted forms of galaxies that lie behind the cluster.
20x30s, 180mm-f/2.8, D7000, full-moon rising, sea-level.
first time using a home made mount, an interesting set of artifacts :
- gradients from sunset and full moon
- periodic error at guiding to be corrected, apparently the periodic error is strong and matches the guiding video time sampling, the correction feedback amplify the troubles every 15s ...
- first time stacking very reproductible frames, as a result small sensor hot-spots make circular patterns from field rotation (visible at full size)
that's a not so bad first light for this mount.
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope of the galaxy Messier 87, home of the black hole whose event horizon was imaged recently.
Original caption: This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87), the home galaxy of the supermassive black hole recently imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Spitzer's infrared view shows a faint trace of a jet of material spewing to the right of the galaxy - a feature that was previously one key indicator that a supermassive black hole lived at the galaxy's center.
More prominent in the image is the shockwave created by that jet. The inset in the image below shows a close-up view of the shockwave on the right side of the galaxy, as well as the shockwave from a second jet traveling to the left of the galaxy.
Located about 55 million light-years from Earth, M87 has been a subject of astronomical study for more than 100 years and has been imaged by many NASA observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and NuSTAR. In 1918, astronomer Heber Curtis first noticed "a curious straight ray" extending from the galaxy's center. This bright jet (which appears to extend to the right of the galaxy) is visible in multiple wavelengths of light, from radio waves through X-rays. The jet is produced by a disk of material spinning rapidly around the black hole, and spewing in opposite directions away from the galaxy. When the particles in the jet impact the interstellar medium (the sparse material filling the space between stars in M87), they create a shockwave that radiates in infrared and radio wavelengths of light, but not visible light.
The jet on the right is traveling almost directly toward Earth, and its brightness is amplified due to its high speed in our direction. But the jet's trajectory is just slightly offset from our line of sight with the galaxy, so we can still see some of the length of the jet. The shockwave begins around the point where the jet appears to curve down, highlighting the regions where the fast-moving particles are colliding with gas in the galaxy and slowing down.
There is also a second jet on the left that is moving so rapidly away from us it is rendered invisible at all wavelengths. But the shockwave it creates in the interstellar medium can still be seen here. In the Spitzer image, the shockwave is on the left side of the galaxy and looks like an inverted letter "C."
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows M87 looks like a hazy, blue space-puff. At the galaxy's center is a supermassive black hole that spews two jets of material out into space. This image shows a wide-field image of M87, also taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Scientists are still striving for a solid theoretical understanding of how inflowing gas around black holes creates outflowing jets.
Infrared light at wavelengths of 3.4 and 4.5 microns are rendered in blue and green, showing the distribution of stars, while dust features that glow brightly at 8.0 microns are shown in red.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in Pasadena. Space operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
Subject: M99, M100, etc.
Image FOV = 3 degrees (180 min) by 1.9 degrees (114 min)
Image Scale = 8 arc-second/pixel
Date: 2008/04/02
Location: near Halcottsville, NY
Exposure: 6 x 10 minutes = 1h total exposure, ISO800, f/4.8
Filter: IDAS LPS
Camera: Hutech-modified Canon 30D
Telescope: SV80S 80mm f/6 + TV TRF-2008 0.8X reducer/flattener = 384mm FL, f/4.8
Mount: AP900
Guiding: ST-402 autoguider and SV66 guidescope. MaximDL autoguiding software using 6-second guide exposures
Processing: Raw conversion and calibration with ImagesPlus (dark frames and bias only, no flat frames -- note the uncorrected banding and dust shadow); Aligning and combing with Registar; Levels, curves, cropping, JPEG conversion with Photoshop CS.
Remarks: Temperature at end: 20F. SQM readings 21.40 at start, 21.49 at end
Virgo Cluster
"The Virgo Cluster (VC) is a cluster of galaxies whose center is 53.8 ± 0.3 Mly (16.5 ± 0.1 Mpc) away in the constellation Virgo. Comprising approximately 1300 (and possibly up to 2000) member galaxies, the cluster forms the heart of the larger Virgo Supercluster, of which the Local Group (LG) is an outlying member. However, the LG experiences the mass of the VC as the Virgocentric flow. It is estimated that the VC's mass is 1.2×1015 M☉ out to 8 degrees of the cluster's center or a radius of about 2.2 Mpc.
Many of the brighter galaxies in this cluster, including the giant elliptical galaxy Messier 87, were discovered in the late 1770s and early 1780s and subsequently included in Charles Messier's catalogue of non-cometary fuzzy objects. Described by Messier as nebulae without stars, their true nature was not recognized until the 1920s.
The cluster subtends a maximum arc of approximately 8 degrees centered in the constellation Virgo. Many of the member galaxies of the cluster are visible with a small telescope. Its brightest member is the elliptical galaxy Messier 49; however its most famous member is the also elliptical galaxy Messier 87, that unlike the former is located in the center of the cluster."
(Source:Wikipedia)
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Virgo Cluster
23.05.2015 Kocaeli, TURKEY
Frames: 46x90" ISO1600 Light, 25x Dark, 26x Flat, SuperBias
Optic: C11 EdgeHD& HyperStar3 @ f/2 (560mm odak uzunluğu)
Camera: Canon Rebel T2i (Hutech Modified) & CLS Clip-in Filter
Guiding: ZWO ASI120MM & Celestron 9x50
Software: PixInsight 1.8, PS CS5
Edited Chandra Space Telescope image of Virgo Galaxy Cluster in x-rays.
Original caption: Chandra observations of the Perseus and Virgo galaxy clusters have provided direct evidence that turbulence is helping to prevent stars from forming there. These new results could answer a long-standing question about how these galaxy clusters keep their enormous reservoirs of hot gas from cooling down to form stars. Scientists targeted Perseus and Virgo because they are both extremely large and relatively bright, thus providing an opportunity to see details that would be very difficult to detect in other clusters.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Palomar. . For more information Visit NASA's Multimedia Gallery You may wish to consult NASA's
image use guidelines. If you plan to use an image and especially if you are considering any commercial usage, you should be aware that some restrictions may apply.
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NOTE: In most cases, NASA does not assert copyright protection for its images, but proper attribution may be required. This may be to NASA or various agencies and individuals that may work on any number of projects with NASA. Please DO NOT ATTRIBUTE TO PINGNEWS. You may say found via pingnews but pingnews is neither the creator nor the owner of these materials.
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Additional information from source:
One of the largest and brightest spiral galaxies found in the Virgo cluster of galaxies, this image of galaxy NGC 4569 was taken by NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer. Galaxy NGC 4569 is located about four million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, the nearest major galaxy cluster to our Milky Way galaxy.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Palomar
En nog het Virgocluster van 5-4-2014, geschoten tijdens de BBQ bij Sterrenwacht_Halley.
Totaal 6 uur en 20 minuten aan bruikbare data. Weer bewerkt met de DSLR-LLRGB Techniek.
Info:
Object: Virgocluster
Telescope: Skywatcher ED80 w/ 0.85x Reducer/Fieldflattener
Camera: 450D Full Spectrum
Mount: Heq 5 pro
Guiding: TSOAG9 met Orion SSAG
Imaging time: 38x10min = 6hr 20mn
Darks: 22x10min
Flats: 21x2,5 sec
Filter: Hutech IDAS LPS-P2
ISO: 400
Calibration in: Nebulosity 3
Stacked in: MaximDL5
Editing: Photoshop CS6
Location: Sterrenwacht Halley, Heesch (NL)
Date: 5-4-2014
Edited Spitzer Space Telescope of the galaxy Messier 87, home of the black hole whose event horizon was imaged recently. Inverted grayscale variant.
Original caption: This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows the elliptical galaxy Messier 87 (M87), the home galaxy of the supermassive black hole recently imaged by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Spitzer's infrared view shows a faint trace of a jet of material spewing to the right of the galaxy - a feature that was previously one key indicator that a supermassive black hole lived at the galaxy's center.
More prominent in the image is the shockwave created by that jet. The inset in the image below shows a close-up view of the shockwave on the right side of the galaxy, as well as the shockwave from a second jet traveling to the left of the galaxy.
Located about 55 million light-years from Earth, M87 has been a subject of astronomical study for more than 100 years and has been imaged by many NASA observatories, including the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory and NuSTAR. In 1918, astronomer Heber Curtis first noticed "a curious straight ray" extending from the galaxy's center. This bright jet (which appears to extend to the right of the galaxy) is visible in multiple wavelengths of light, from radio waves through X-rays. The jet is produced by a disk of material spinning rapidly around the black hole, and spewing in opposite directions away from the galaxy. When the particles in the jet impact the interstellar medium (the sparse material filling the space between stars in M87), they create a shockwave that radiates in infrared and radio wavelengths of light, but not visible light.
The jet on the right is traveling almost directly toward Earth, and its brightness is amplified due to its high speed in our direction. But the jet's trajectory is just slightly offset from our line of sight with the galaxy, so we can still see some of the length of the jet. The shockwave begins around the point where the jet appears to curve down, highlighting the regions where the fast-moving particles are colliding with gas in the galaxy and slowing down.
There is also a second jet on the left that is moving so rapidly away from us it is rendered invisible at all wavelengths. But the shockwave it creates in the interstellar medium can still be seen here. In the Spitzer image, the shockwave is on the left side of the galaxy and looks like an inverted letter "C."
This image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows M87 looks like a hazy, blue space-puff. At the galaxy's center is a supermassive black hole that spews two jets of material out into space. This image shows a wide-field image of M87, also taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.
Scientists are still striving for a solid theoretical understanding of how inflowing gas around black holes creates outflowing jets.
Infrared light at wavelengths of 3.4 and 4.5 microns are rendered in blue and green, showing the distribution of stars, while dust features that glow brightly at 8.0 microns are shown in red.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. Science operations are conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech in Pasadena. Space operations are based at Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Littleton, Colorado. Data are archived at the Infrared Science Archive housed at IPAC at Caltech. Caltech manages JPL for NASA.
Out of this world public domain images from NASA. All original images and many more can be found from the NASA Image Library
Curated higher resolutions with digital enhancement without attribution required can be downloaded: www.rawpixel.com/board/418580/nasa
This is a free download under CC Attribution ( CC BY 4.0) Please credit NASA and rawpixel.com.
LRGB composite of the Markarian's chain in the Virgo cluster. This was shot from a bright sky lit by the full moon and the resulting gradients were a nightmare to remove. It would need a lot more light to properly show the wonderful tidal interactions going on with a few of the galaxies on the chain.
Total integration time L 2h (10min subs), RGB 3h/channel (20 min subs).
Part of the Virgo Cluster of Galaxies in the constellation Virgo. This is part of the area they call the Realm of Galaxies, between Virgo and Leo, and there are estimated to be up to 2000 galaxies visible in that area of the sky (not to the naked eye though!). The two largest in this image, M84 and M86 - the round blobs to the right - are between 55 and 60 million light years away. Took me ages to get this little lot in the frame!
Still experiencing problems with my mount, so restricted to 26 minutes here having had to ditch a few. I'll give this another go when the mount decides to behave itself.
26 April 2011
200p, EQ5 unguided
Nikon D70 full spectrum prime focus
26 x 60sec
iso 1600
darks, bias and flats.
Stacked in DSS processed in CS5
Enormous lenticular galaxy, M86 seems to reign supreme among the the Virgo cluster of galaxies. It will grow even bigger as its triumphant gravity will attract more smaller galaxies orbiting around it.
C11-HD + STL 11Km.
6 subs of 600s bin 2X2
Virgo Cluster, Normal; 9401_08 ACS/WFC F850LP/F475W (color) VCC1535
hla.stsci.edu/cgi-bin/display?image=HST_9401_08_ACS_WFC_F...(color)%20VCC1535
View the original version to see more detail.
A stack of two 90s exposures taken with a 135mm f2.5 lens and a Pentax K10D. The whole lot is mounted on an early model Astrotrac. The K10D camera does not do high ISO and long exposures well, hence the noisy background. Still, to see distant galaxies, even as vague smudges, with just a small lens is exciting.
I had 10 images to stack but more than two caused a build up of light pollution which was hard to remove.
Markarian's chain of galaxies in Virgo was discovered in the 1960's by Armenian astronomer Benjamin Markarian. There are at least seven members of the chain that move together and are part of the Virgo Cluster. In the spring, our night sky faces away from the plane of our Milky Way, allowing observers to easily view outside our stellar neighborhood and into the vastness of deep space.
In the center of the image, NGC 4435 & NGC 4438 are commonly known as The Eyes. The two galaxies, about 52 million light-years away, appear to have had a interacted millions of years ago, perhaps leading to the creation of the smaller NGC 4435.
Messier objects M84 & M86 dominate the lower right part of the chain. The only two galaxies in the chain to be included in Charles Messier's famous list, they are both elliptical galaxies between 52 and 60 million light-years away. The pair are surrounded by NGC 4388, NGC 4425, NGC 4438, NGC 4435, and NGC 4402. Smaller galaxies, IC 3303, NGC 4387, NGC 4413, and IC 3355 are all clearly visible.
In the upper right, past the Eyes, lie NGC 4461, NGC 4458, NGC 4473, NGC 4477, and NGC 4479.
The field is also filled with dozens of smaller galaxies, most no more than a faint smudge. Many of these very distant galaxies are identified in the light blue circles.
Acquisition:
Imaged on 6/4/16 from New Florence, MO and 6/5/16 & 6/7/16 from Lake St Louis, MO
Integration: 4 hours (LRGB)
Luminance: 12x600s @ 1x1 (120')
R/G/B: 8/8/8 x 300s @ 2x2 (40'/40'/40')
Equipment
Scope: William Optics GTF 81 5 element refractor (535mm focal length)
Upgraded with Moonlite CF focuser with motor
Imager: QHY9Ms with Olivon OAG and QHYCFW2-s filter wheel
Guidecam: ASI120MM
Filters: Baader LRGB
Mount: Orion Atlas EQ-G
Processing and Software
Guiding with PHD2
Acquisition with Sequence Generator Pro
Integration and processing with PixInsight 1.8
Markarian's Chain in Virgo: flic.kr/p/JED6fn
Annotated image: flic.kr/p/JMtPE4
Astrobin: astrob.in/254142/0/
#VirgoCluster #M86 #M84 #NGC4438 #Virgo #Galaxy #Space #Astronomy #Astrophotography