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The Abell catalog of rich clusters of galaxies is an all-sky catalog of more than 4,073 galaxy clusters of nominal redshift z <= 0.2. This catalog was compiled by George Abell’s original “Northern Survey” of 1958, which had only 2,712 clusters, with a further 1,361 clusters – the “Southern Survey” of 1989 – from those parts of the south celestial hemisphere that had been omitted from the earlier survey. Abell1736 is a rarely imaged rich galaxy cluster in the constellation of Hydra that comprise hundreds of galaxies sparse on less than two degrees of sky. Unfortunately none of these galaxies is particularly large to show many details with amateur telescopes.
If you would like to see larger sizes of this image please visit my homepage at www.glitteringlights.com
The Redshift Star Fighter 's ultra-sensitive spacial array is used to quickly lock the rail gun onto phase shifting enemies.
Data from the following proposal is used to create this image:
Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems
All channels: ACS/WFC F606W
North is 13.46° counter-clockwise from up.
Chaos.
Data from the following proposal is used to create this image:
Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems
All channels: ACS/WFC F606W
North is 65.77° clockwise from up.
NGC 4535, Virgo, The Lost Galaxy of Copeland, and Five Quasars
NGC 4535 is a low surface brightness (LSB) barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Virgo, first documented by William Herschel in 1785. Due to its hazy and "ghostly" visual presentation prominent amateur astronomer Leland Copeland named it "The Lost Galaxy" in the 1950s. Based on its median redshift-independent distance measurement of 51.53 Mly, apparent magnitude of 10.32 (g), and angular size of 7.80 arcmin, the galaxy is approximately 116,000 ly in diameter and 90% as bright as the Milky Way. Its redshift of 0.00657 corresponds to a recession velocity of 1,963 km/s, which is in part due to the expansion of space, and in part to its "peculiar velocity" through space relative to us. Its morphological classification is SAB(s)c, indicating an intermediate-barred spiral galaxy without a central ring, and with moderately wound spiral arms. The galaxy is one of the larger members of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster that includes up to 2,000 members. Like most "cluster spirals" it shows evidence of tidal interaction with other members in the form of spiral arm deformation and splitting, gas depletion, and low average star formation rate (SFR) in the current cosmological epoch. The blue floccules in the spiral structure represent "OB Associations", immense clusters of large and very hot young stars. However, unlike in similar galaxies, these are present in relatively low numbers due to gas depletion in the galactic disk. For this reason, NGC 4535 is regarded as a low surface brightness (LSB) galaxy. A number of curved, elongated structures in the disk strongly resemble "stellar streams", or gravitationally stretched remnants of merged dwarf galaxies. Many major galaxies in the Virgo Cluster show evidence of rapid mass assembly through the process of dwarf galaxy accretion.
NGC 4535 has been extensively investigated regarding the presence of a central supermassive black hole (SMBH). Central black holes have been detected in virtually all substantial galaxies studied. Spectroscopic analysis of the central region in the optical band shows evidence of numerous ionized hydrogen (Hii) clouds. These originate from molecular gas clouds ionized by the powerful ultraviolet radiation emanating either from an SMBH accretion disk and/or circumnuclear regions of new star formation. The width of the spectral lines indicates the "velocity dispersion" of luminous matter near the nucleus, which in turn depends on the intensity of the gravitational field generated by the mass in the galactic center. Studies of NGC 4535 refined the understanding of the relationship between the mass and activity of the central SMBH and the evolution of the galaxy within which it resides. For example, this galaxy's gas depletion and current low average star formation rate are in part due to the return of mass momentum and energy from the black hole to the galaxy by the mechanisms of "SMBH outflows" and "radiation pressure" respectively. These processes expel gas and dust from the galaxy, and are explained in more detail in section 40 here:
www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/basic-extragal...
While NGC 4535 does not have a central starburst ring structure visible in the optical band, it has been one of the major subjects in recent studies on galactic ring formation (Jiayi Sun et al. 2018). Observational evidence reveals a close association between galactic star formation rate (SFR), molecular gas clouds which are the gas reservoir for star formation, and ionized hydrogen (Hii) regions formed when molecular gas is exposed to ionizing ultraviolet radiation from newborn stars. The hydrogen molecule, H2, originating from the big bang, is by far the main component of molecular gas. The second most abundant component is the carbon monoxide molecule, CO, whose constituent atoms were formed during the preceding generations of "stellar nucleosynthesis". Its emission line at the wavelength of 2.6 mm is used in radio-astronomy to map the distribution of galactic molecular gas clouds. While low mass galaxies show faint and scattered CO emissions, massive spiral galaxies exhibit bright, contiguous ring-like emissions within the galactic bulge (Hughes et al. 2013a). These structures, named "Resonance Rings", are thought to accumulate in regions where the outward acting-forces on the molecules balance the centrally-acting gravitational forces. More precisely, resonance rings form where the kinetic energy of gas molecules, defined by the average "velocity dispersion", balances the gravitational potential energy. The evolution of molecular resonance rings also depends on other mechanisms, such as magnetic fields, central SMBH outflows and radiation pressure, and external gravitational effects and matter exchange related to merging or interacting galaxies. In NGC 4535, a resonance ring was detected approximately 1,500 ly from the center. Under favorable circumstances molecular resonance rings evolve into star-forming regions, and eventually become brightly luminous in the visible band.
Derived properties of identified faint objects are listed in the chart on the annotated image. The most remote are five quasars, four of which lie beyond the "cosmic event horizon", as their recession velocities in the present cosmological epoch are superluminal. Two of them, marked with (+) appear significantly brighter than their listed apparent magnitudes. Many quasars are variable up to several magnitudes with periods ranging from days to years, depending on the inflow of matter available for accretion. The most intrinsically luminous object is LBQS 1232+0815, which is nearly 5,000 times brighter than the Milky Way. The most distant quasar is SDSS J123352.16+080527.4 (z = 2.76700), lying at a light travel distance (lookback time) of 11.33 Bly.
Image details:
-Remote Takahashi TOA 150 x 1105 mm
-OSC 36 x 300 sec, (2021 + 2022), 2x drizzle, 40% linear crop, FOV 31x21 arcmin
-Software: DSS, XnView, Starnet++ v2, StarTools 1.3 and 1.8, Cosmological Calculator 3
The @redshiftsports Dual-Position seatpost in my @jguillem Orient endurance bike.
I have just posted my impressions and aero position musings on my blog. Find the link here: torstenfrank.wordpress.com/2017/10/27/aero-position-probl...
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Die Redshift Sports Dual-Position Sattelstütze in meinem J.Guillem Orient Endurance Rad.
Ich habe soeben meine Eindrücke und Zeitfahr-Positions-Überlegungen in meinem Blog publiziert. Anbei der Link: torstenfrank.wordpress.com/2017/10/27/aero-position-probl...
✰ This photo was featured on The Epic Global Showcase here: flavoredtape.com/post/155887905474
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aspenexcel:
Redshift
ESA’s Euclid will examine visible and infrared light from distant galaxies using two scientific instruments on board. These instruments will measure the accurate position and shapes of galaxies in visible light, and their redshift (from which their distance can be derived) in the infrared light. With these data, scientists can construct a 3D map of the distributions of both the galaxies and the dark matter in the Universe. The map will show how large-scale structure evolved over time, tracing the role of dark energy.
The VISible instrument (VIS) takes very sharp images of galaxies over a much larger fraction of sky than would be possible from the ground. These observations will be used to measure the shapes of over a billion galaxies.
As the name suggests, VIS collects visible light. It is sensitive to wavelengths from green (550 nanometres) up to near infrared (900 nm). The instrument uses a mosaic of 36 CCDs (Charge Coupled Devices, a type of camera sensor), each of which contains more than 4000 pixels by 4000 pixels. This gives the detector a total of about 600 megapixels, equivalent to almost seventy 4K resolution screens.
Near-Infrared Spectrometer and Photometer (NISP) is dedicated to making spectroscopic measurements of galaxies, which involves determining how much light they emit per wavelength. This is useful for measuring the galaxies’ redshift, which cosmologists can use to estimate the distance to each galaxy. NISP has the largest field of view for an infrared instrument ever flown in space. The instrument measures near-infrared light (900–2000 nm) using a grid of 16 detectors, each containing more than 2000 by 2000 pixels.
Euclid is ESA’s space telescope designed to explore the dark Universe. The mission will create the largest, most accurate 3D map of the Universe ever produced across 10 billion years of cosmic time. Euclid will explore how the Universe has expanded and how large-scale structure is distributed across space and time, revealing more about the role of gravity and the nature of dark energy and dark matter.
Credits: ESA (acknowledgement: work performed by ATG under contract to ESA), CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO
Lots of umbrella-like arcs of stars encircling this galaxy. These are possibly the result of a smaller, compact galaxy dropping into the larger one and swishing back and forth several times as it is stretched out into a long, complex orbit, or perhaps many orbits. It's not something I will ever claim to understand in great detail.
Data from the following proposal is used to create this image:
Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems
All channels: ACS/WFC F606W
North is 18.91° clockwise from up.
NGC5907 (NGC5906, UGC09801), Draco, Knife Edge Galaxy, and Five Quasars
NGC 5907 is a large nearly edge-on spiral galaxy, first documented by W. Herschel in 1788. On a large scale it is one of the brightest members of the small NGC5866 Galaxy Group in the constellation of Draco. Although the designation generally refers to the entire galaxy, it was not until 1850 that George Stoney identified the faint W part of the galaxy obscured by prominent equatorial dust lanes as NGC 5906. According to NED (NASA Extragalactic Database), the galaxy is 12.8 arcmin in angular size and 9.18 (V) in integrated apparent magnitude Other values found in the literature for the visible band magnitude include 11.12, 11.8, and 12.46, which simply appear too low when compared to the object's photographic brightness. Due to its edge-on orientation its integrated apparent magnitude and the calculated absolute magnitude are significantly underestimated for two reasons. First, it presents to the observer a much smaller surface area than a face-on galaxy. And second, much of its starlight is absorbed and scattered by thick layers of gas and dust in the galactic plane. Its redshift of 0.002225 indicates light travel distance of 30.88 Mly, assuming redshift is due exclusively to the expansion of space (Hubble Flow). For redshifts < 0.01, redshift-independent distance measurements, such as the Cepheid method, are generally more accurate because a fraction of the redshift value is due to an object's motion through space. For NGC5907 the median redshift-independent distance value is 14.275 Mpc, or 46.54 Mly.
Based on the measurable properties, we can estimate NGC5907 to be 172,000 ly in diameter, approximately 40% larger and two times brighter than the Milky Way. Its redshift indicates a recession velocity of 666 km/s. Its morphological classification is SAc (or Sc), indicating a spiral galaxy with loosely wound arms and no evidence of a nuclear bar. Considering the galaxy's nearly edge-on presentation with 87.2* inclination to our line of sight, the presence of a bar can not be confidently ruled out because a view of the nucleus is obscured by dust, gas, and luminous matter in the galactic disk. Garcia-Burillo et al. (1997) suggest that anomalies in molecular gas kinematics can be explained by the presence of a stellar bar. The galaxy has a thin disk with a nearly absent central bulge, resulting in a bulge-to-disk luminosity ratio of only 0.05. Prominent equatorial dust lanes extend nearly to the edges of the galactic disk. While there is some controversy about the presence of extraplanar dust, Xilouris et al. (1999) report that the thickness of extraplanar dust is about 10% larger than the thickness of the stellar disk. As indicated by the light blue floccules of hot newborn stars and by the presence of numerous ionized hydrogen (Hii) regions in the galactic disk, the galaxy displays an above average star formation rate (SFR). This was initially perplexing since the galaxy was thought to be an isolated field spiral with no evidence of tidal disruption. However, deep-sky images by R Jay GaBany (2006) revealed a complex interweaved structure of stellar debris surrounding the galaxy, resulting from an accretion event over four billion years ago. Gravitational perturbations caused by this stream explain elevated SFR and the slight warp in its galactic disk.
www.cosmotography.com/images/small_ring_ngc5907.html
Although it is statistically very likely that NGC5907 contains a central supermassive black hole (SMBH), literature search reveals no information regarding detection of radio wave or high energy emissions from the galactic nucleus. If a central SMBH is present, it shows no evidence of active accretion at this time. Nor can a central SMBH be confirmed by spectroscopy and stellar kinematics. Due to the edge-on orientation, the nucleus is obscured in the optical band by equatorial gas, dust, and luminous matter.
The annotated image indicates the position of an ultra-luminous X-ray source (ULX) within the galaxy's disk. The precise nature of these objects is not confidently known. In order of probability, their energy source is explained as accretion around an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH), super-Eddington accretion around a neutron star or large stellar-mass black holes (BH), or beamed emissions from high mass X-ray binary stars. Pintore et al. (2018) reported an X-ray transient event in this ULX implying a flux increase by a factor of >35. They find the event is consistent with a ~30 solar mass black hole accreting at the Eddington limit, or with beamed emissions from an accreting neutron star.
Other objects of interest on the annotated image include an irregular dwarf galaxy LEDA 54419. Its redshift is very similar to that of NGC5907 suggesting the two might be bound. Distinct blue color indicating high SFR further increases the possibility of tidal interaction. Unfortunately, no redshift-independent distance measurements have been made for this galaxy, and their interaction can not be confirmed. A number of remote galaxies lie in the background. Four of these which carry identifiers are located at distances between 1.6 and 1.73 Bly. Another six even more remote galaxy candidates are marked with letter G. The image also includes five identified quasars. Three of these appear brigher than their listed apparent magnitudes. They are marked with the "+" sign on the chart below. Since quasar luminosity depends on its SMBH accretion rate, quasars often manifest variability up to several magnitudes over a period of days to years. The last two quasars on the list have super-luminal recession velocities in the present cosmological epoch. They have crossed the cosmic event horizon, and the light they are presently emitting can never reach us. The most remote of the quasars is SDSS J151538.77+560520.4 at a light travel distance (lookback time) of 10.86 billion light years.
Image details:
-Remote Takahashi TOA 150 x 1105mm, SBIG STF-8300C, Paramount GT GEM
-OSC 32 x 300 sec, 2x drizzle, 50% linear crop
-Software: DSS, XnView, StarNet++ v2, StarTools v1.3 and 1.8, Cosmological Calculator v3
Originally planned on shooting this from a dark site on top of a mountain but my laptop had other plans. Ended up taking this from my driveway instead, but I'm very pleased with the detail I got at just 610mm focal length. There are also a number of [other galaxies in the uncropped pic](i.imgur.com/tQfxUFh.jpg) including one over a billion light years away from us (calculated from redshift). This image was taken with a monochrome camera through filters for luminance (all visible light), red, green, blue, and Hydrogen-alpha (656nm), which were combined into a color image. The Hydrogen-alpha was combined with red (described below) to enhance the hydrogen nebulae in the galaxy (red splotches in the spiral arms). Captured on March 21, 22, 24, and 29th, 2021 from a Bortle 6 zone
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**[Equipment:](i.imgur.com/6T8QNsv.jpg)**
* TPO 6" F/4 Imaging Newtonian
* Orion Sirius EQ-G
* ZWO ASI1600MM-Pro
* Skywatcher Quattro Coma Corrector
* ZWO EFW 8x1.25"/31mm
* Astronomik LRGB+CLS Filters- 31mm
* Astrodon 31mm Ha 5nm, Oiii 3nm, Sii 5nm
* Agena 50mm Deluxe Straight-Through Guide Scope
* ZWO ASI-120MC for guiding
* Moonlite Autofocuser
**Acquisition:** 10 hours 2 minutes (Camera at Unity Gain, -15°C)
* Lum - 106x120"
* Ha - 30x300"
* Red - 40x120"
* Green - 40x120"
* Blue - 50x120"
* Darks- 30
* Flats- 30 per filter
**Capture Software:**
* Captured using [N.I.N.A.](nighttime-imaging.eu) and PHD2 for guiding and dithering.
**PixInsight Processing:**
* BatchPreProcessing
* StarAlignment
* [Blink](youtu.be/sJeuWZNWImE?t=40)
* ImageIntegration
* DrizzleIntegration (2x, Var β=1.5) (Lum only)
* StarAlign Ha, R, G, B stacks to drizzled L
* DynamicCrop
* DynamicBackgroundExtraction
**Luminance:**
* EZ Decon + Denoise
* ArcsinhStretch + histogramtransformation to bring nonlinear
**RGB:**
* ChannelCombinaiton to combine monochrome R, G, B stacks into color image
* PhotometricColorCalibration
* SCNR green
**Adding Ha:**
> I followed this tutorial which I find produces much better results than my previous NBRGBCombination script technique:
> www.arciereceleste.it/tutorial-pixinsight/cat-tutorial-en...
* PixelMath to make Clean Ha. This effectively isolates just the Ha from the red continuum spectrum
> Ha-Q * (Red-med (Red))
> Q=1.0416
* PixelMath to combine Clean Ha
* PixelMath to add Ha to RGB image ($T)
> R= $T+B*(Ha_Clean - med(Ha_Clean))
> G= $T
> B= $T+B*0.2*(Ha_Clean - med(Ha_Clean))
> B=3
**HaRGB:**
* Slight SCNR
* HSV Repair
* ArcsinhStretch + histogramtransformation to bring nonlinear
* ColorSaturation to slightly desaturate Ha regions
* HistogramTransformation to further stretch to match lum brightness
**Nonlinear:**
* LRGBCombination with stretched L as luminance
* Several [Curve](i.imgur.com/4L61MPU.png)Transformations to adjust lightness, contrast, colors, saturation, etc.
* MoreSCNR
* ACDNR
* LocalHistogramEqualization
* More Curves
* ColorSaturation to *slightly* desaturate Ha regions
* MMT noise reduction
* EZ StarReduction
* Final Curves
* Resample to 60%
* DynamicCrop to 3555x2000
* Annotation
One of the last of the galaxies I haven't done yet for this proposal. I've been putting it off because it's not as interesting as most of the others. I'm not sure why it was chosen for the survey. Maybe the ever-so-slight spiral structure it might have?
Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems
All Channels: ACS/WFC F606W
North is 56.46° counter-clockwise from up.
Data from the following proposal is used to create this image:
Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems
All channels: ACS/WFC F606W
North is 1.81° clockwise from up.
NGC 4725 Coma Berenices, A One-Armed Spiral Galaxy and 7 Quasars
NGC 4725 is a large intermediate spiral galaxy in the constellation of Coma Berenices, first documented by W. Herschel in 1785. It is the brightest, but relatively isolated, member of the Coma I Galaxy Group, that is itself a part of the Virgo Galaxy Supercluster which includes our own Milky Way.
Its morphological classification is SAB (r)ab pec, indicating a weakly barred, tightly wound spiral galaxy with a complete ring. The galaxy was assigned the "peculiar" descriptor for several reasons. The ring structure is not concentric with the galactic nucleus, and displays elliptical motion. Unlike most spiral galaxies, NGC 4725 displays only a single spiral arm. And, its galactic disk is warped relative to the galactic plane. These anomalies are almost certainly due to strong gravitational interaction with the neighboring NGC 4747 (ARP 159), which is even more highly deformed. Further evidence of interaction, and probable mergers with smaller satellites, comes from the densities in the faint outer parts of the galactic disk suggestive of "stellar streams". These are marked with "S" on the annotated image. Bright blue OB Associations within the ring and along the spiral arm indicate a high star formation rate (SFR), also triggered by tidal interaction. The reddish color along the inner NE edge of the ring is due to Ha fluorescence of hydrogen clouds partially ionized by the ultraviolet radiation emanating from the swarm of very hot and massive young stars. These "stellar nurseries" are especially prominent on infrared images taken by the Spitzer Space Telescope. Spectroscopic studies of the central region indicate the presence of an active galactic nucleus (AGN) of the Seyfert 2 type, caused by a central suppermassive black hole. SIMBAD extragalactic database lists several radio sources without optical counterparts that may be due to compact clouds of neutal hydrogen. It also lists two ultra-luminous X-ray sources (ULX) which are thought to be associated with moderately accreting intermediate-mass black holes (IMBH).
Based on measurable data, NGC 4725 lies at a light travel distance (lookback time) of 41.1 Mly. This is based on the median value of 48 redshift-independent distance estimates which span an unusually wide range of nearly 3. From the distance, angular size, and apparent magnitude we can derive the actual diameter of 114,000 ly and an absolute magnitude of -21.06, approximately 1.25 times brighter than the Milky Way. From the redshift, which is due to the expansion of space and the galaxy's "peculiar velocity" through space, we calculate a recession velocity of 1,209 km/s. (See the note at the bottom of the chart).
The other prominent object in the field is NGC 4712, an emission line barred spiral galaxy with a curiously attenuated central region, possibly obscured by dust and gas. It lies in the faraway background at a distance of 203 Mly, and is about 122,000 ly in diameter - approximately the size of the Milky Way, but only half as bright.
The field is strewn with numerous remote galaxies, most of which have no identifier or observation data listed. A number of these peer through the translucent envelope of NGC 4725, and are marked with letter "G" on the annotated image.
The field also includes seven very distant quasars (QSOs) listed in the attached chart. At this time, some are substantially brighter and some fainter than their photometric data indicate. Letter "X" on the annotated image indicates the locations of two fairly bright quasars which have apparently faded beyond the limiting magnitude of approximately 20.5. The last six quasars on the list have superluminal "proper recession velocities" in the present epoch. They have receded beyond the "cosmic event horizon", and the light they are now emitting can never reach us. The last two on the list are "hyperluminous quasars", more than 2,000 times brighter than the entire Milky Way galaxy. SDSS J125125.57+252026.2 is the most distant. The photons we are presently recording have travelled 11.7 billion years (lookback = light travel time). In the present epoch, its "comoving = proper distance" is nearly 22 Bly. Over the next few billion years, its redshift will gradually increase until the quasar becomes forever invisible. From the photons' perspective, travelling at the speed of light time does not pass, and their journey was instantaneous.
See the link for more information on ULX, IMBH and quasars:
www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/basic-extragal...
-Remote Takahashi TOA 150 x 1105mm
-OSC 36 x 300 sec, 2x drizzle, 50% linear crop
-Software:
DSS, XnView, StarNet++ v2, StarTools
Extragalactic Cosmological Calculator v2
www.cloudynights.com/gallery/image/123530-extragalactic-c...
Soon after the start of the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s science operations, astronomers noticed something unexpected in the data: red objects that appear small on the sky, located in the distant, young universe. Come to be known as “little red dots” (LRDs), this intriguing class of objects is not well understood at present, sparking new questions and prompting new theories about the processes that occurred in the early universe.
A team of astronomers sifted through James Webb Space Telescope data from multiple surveys to compile one of the largest samples of “little red dots” (LRDs) to date. The team started with the Cosmic Evolution Early Release Science (CEERS) survey before widening their scope to other extragalactic legacy fields, including the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) and the Next Generation Deep Extragalactic Exploratory Public (NGDEEP) survey.
From their sample, they found that these mysterious red objects that appear small on the sky emerge in large numbers around 600 million years after the big bang and undergo a rapid decline in quantity around 1.5 billion years after the big bang. Spectroscopic data of some of the LRDs in their sample, provided by the Red Unknowns: Bright Infrared Extragalactic Survey (RUBIES), suggests that many are accreting black holes. However, further study of these intriguing objects is required.
[Image description: Six Webb images of little red dots are combined in a two-row mosaic. Each little red dot is centered within a square frame and lies against the black background of space. Each dot has a yellow-white circular core surrounded by a red, fuzzy ring. White text in the top left corner of each box lists the source’s name from the Webb surveys, and its redshift. From left to right, the top row reads CEERS 14448, z = 4.75; NGDEEP 4321, z = 8.92; and PRIMER-COS 10539, z = 7.48. The bottom row reads CEERS 20320, z = 5.27; JADES 9186, z = 4.99; and PRIMER-UDS 17818, z = 6.40.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, D. Kocevski (Colby College); CC BY 4.0
ARP 294, Interacting Galaxies with Stellar Streams, NGC 3786 and NGC 3788, Ursa Major
NGC3786 and NGC3788 are a tight pair of apparently interacting spiral galaxies in the constellation of Ursa Major, first documented by W. Herschel around 1790. They are listed as ARP 294 in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies which includes examples of unusual structures found among galaxies. As the chart below indicates, the galaxies are very similar in angular size, around 2.2 arcmin, apparent magnitude of 13.3 (g), and morphological classification as peculiar intermediate spirals with a ring. Their redshift-based distances are 125.4 and 123.8 million light years respectively, suggesting a separation between them of 1.6 Mly. However, redshift-based distance estimates assume that redshift recession is due exclusively to the expansion of space, and do not correct for galaxies' "peculiar velocities" through space. For redshifts less than 0.01, or distances less than 138 Mly, it is generally accepted that redshift-independent distance measurements, such as the Cepheid period-luminosity relation, are more accurate. According to the NED extragalactic database, median redshift-independent distances for the pair are 158 and 183 Mly respectively, indicating a separation between them of 25 Mly. In either case, as their relatively undisturbed spiral arms confirm, the galaxies appear close due to similar lines of sight, and have not yet undergone major deformations due to close physical contact.
However, both galaxies are still interacting, although not with each other. Each one displays a faint stellar stream of a dwarf falaxy which appears to be in the process of merging. And, each displays a bright blue sector in its galactic disk where its intersecting stellar stream causes a blaze of starburst activity. On the annotated image the streams are marked as A and B, while the starburst regions are marked as S1, S2, and S3. Stream A appears to follow a straight line resulting from gravitational dispersal of a dwarf galaxy as it directly approached NGC3788, causing an explosion of starburst activity (S1) as it traversed the N perimeter of the spiral disk. Meanwhile, Stream B appears as a faint oval loop formed by stellar debris from a disrupted dwarf galaxy which has merged with NGC3786, and made at least one full orbit around it. Along the S and E perimeter of the main galaxy, two luminous blue regions (S2 and S3) indicate starburst activity at the intersections between the looping stellar stream and the main galactic disk.
Physical properties of the galaxies are listed in the chart on the annotated image. Values enclosed in parentheses are based on median redshift-independent distance measurements obtained from the NED database. Depending on the distance method used, the galaxies are between 25 and 50% smaller than the Milky Way, 30 to 70% less bright, and of approximately equal size to each other. Although both galaxies have faint emission lines in the spectrum of their nuclei, and the nucleus of NGC3786 appears bright in the X-ray band, NED extragalactic database does not register an active galactic nucleus in either galaxy.
Since galactic interactions and mergers significantly influence stellar dynamics, the rates of consumption, production, and the distribution of gas and dust, synthesis of new elements (metallicity), and the nature of the galactic nucleus, galactic encounters are of great interest in the study of galactic evolution.
The attached image includes a number of remote background galaxies and two quasars listed in the chart below. The most remote of these is LAMOST J114003.83+315503.5, lying at a light travel (lookback time) distance of 8.85 Bly. The object labeled G1 is identified by Simbad as a galaxy LAMOST J113941.45+315442.2, no angular size specified, which is not listed in the NED database. The object appears starlike on high resolution HST photographs, and is most likely mis-categorized.
HST image
Image details:
-Remote Takahashi TOA 150 x 1105mm, SBIG STF-8300C, Paramount GT GEM
-OSC 36 x 300 sec, 2x drizzle, 40% linear crop
-Software: DSS, XnView, StarNet++ v2, StarTools v1.3 and 1.8, Cosmological Calculator v3
Release Date: March 10, 2010 - Distant galaxy clusters mysteriously stream at a million miles per hour along a path roughly centered on the southern constellations Centaurus and Hydra. A new study led by Alexander Kashlinsky at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., tracks this collective motion -- dubbed the "dark flow" -- to twice the distance originally reported, out to more than 2.5 billion light-years.
Abell 1689, redshift 0.181.
Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center/Scientific Visualization Studio/ESA/L. Bradley/JHU
To learn more go to:
www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/news/releases/2010/10-023.html
To see other visualizations related to this story go to:
We'd trade away the sky if we thought it would save us.
Data from the following proposal is used to create this image:
Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems
All channels: ACS/WFC F606W
North is 17.62° counter-clockwise from up.
redshift removals
helping you to come and go
doppler shifts r us
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farnarkling and here we are. This one was tooling along nicely as a mediation on the texture of the filleted avian component of my 'Surfin' Birds' piece. I'd got that more or less to where I wanted to go, but thought that the environment could use a kick of its own to help contrast with the artifact. Mindful of other serendipitous interventions I experimented with the normally mundane "Red-Eye Removal" filter, and...u beaut! A fair bit more digital
The haiku grew out of the "Not An Idle Bone" title as I thought of moving house on a galactic scale, and the "Red" part of "Red-Eye" in a cosmic sense. Christian Doppler, of course, was an Austrian, which as any typographer knows, means he's practically Australian...no worries Herr matey, ta very much!
And it even kinda blips out a little visual pulse from strobing when it scrolls on the screen...wicked! (GRINS) It's rather far out when viewed full screen too.
Taken with my Pentax 67 with 200mm lens and Ilford HP5 Plus film. Scanned with my Plustek OpticFilm 120
M100 (NGC 4321), NGC 4322, NGC 4328 Interacting Galaxy Group, Coma Berenices
This galaxy was discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1781, then confirmed by Messier 29 days later, and listed as entry 100 in his catalog of nebulae and star clusters. He described the object as a faint nebula without a star. It was later documented by William Herschel who noted a brighter center presumably composed of stars, and by his son John Herschel in 1833 who initially found it to be not very remarkable. Observational notes of the nebula became more interesting as telescope technologies improved over the years. By 1850, M100 appears on the list of 16 "spiral nebulae" identified with Lord Rosse's giant reflector. And by 1888, entry 4321 in Dreyer's New General Catalogue describes the nebula as a "very remarkable... 2-branched spiral... with a bright mottled nucleus." In 1990, M100 was the very first object photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope, revealing a serious spherical aberration flaw in its mirror.
In most amateur telescopes this galaxy remains a humble visual target. However, with even modest apertures, it presents a captivating photographic subject surrounded by a cluster of dwarf companions. M 100 is a nearly face-on grand design spiral galaxy with two well defined spiral arms. Infrared studies of the central region reveal a delicate bar structure, which classifies it as an intermediate spiral of the SAB morphological type. Together with all the galaxies marked in white or blue on the annotated image, M100 is a rapidly moving member of the large Virgo Galaxy Cluster. Since this group has high peculiar velocity, or rapid movement through space relative to the Milky Way, redshifts of these galaxies do not accurately reflect Hubble Flow, or the expansion of space itself, and should not be used to estimate galaxy distances. In the chart below, physical properties of the group are calculated from the redshift-independent distance measurements listed in the NASA Extragalactic Database (NED). Based on the specified median distance of 51.67 million ly, we can calculate M100's diameter of 131,000 ly, and an absolute magnitude (V) of -21.65. In terms of morphology, dimensions, and mass (approximately 400 billion stars), the galaxy is quite similar to the Milky Way. Its greater overall brightness may be due to an active galactic nucleus (AGN) of the Hii LINER type, caused by ionizing radiation emanating from the accretion disk of a central supermassive black hole (SMBH) and/or from central regions of starburst activity.
Even at low resolution, the galaxy reveals many features typical of grand design spirals. Blue floccules in the spiral arms are OB Associations - immense clusters of recently formed large, hot stars. These are typically surrounded by parent clouds of hydrogen gas, which can glow red where they re-emit energy absorbed from starlight. Yellowish color toward the middle is due to a multitude of smaller, ancient stars remaining from the early stages of galaxy formation. Dark stripes and bands weaving through the galaxy disk are large clouds of obscuring dust and gas. And, the bright region in the center is generated by a dense population of ancient stars and by emissions from a central supermassive black hole (SMBH). In some galaxies, M100 included, this nuclear region is surrounded with a ring of rapid new star formation probably driven by nuclear outflows caused by SMBH radiation pressure, SMBH winds and jets, convection plumes, and increased supernova activity.
While it displays localized areas of starburst activity around the nucleus and within spiral arms, like most other spiral galaxies in the Virgo Cluster M100 has a low neutral hydrogen content and a lower average star formation rate (SFR) than what is found in isolated, field galaxies. Hydrogen gas is lost by a process called ram-pressure stripping as a cluster galaxy with high peculiar velocity moves through a relatively dense intergalactic medium (IGM) within a cluster. For more details, see section 41 here:
www.cloudynights.com/articles/cat/articles/basic-extragal...
The attached image demonstrates a number of smaller galaxies, annotated in blue, surrounding M100. Angular proximity and similar redshift values imply - but do not prove - physical proximity and gravitational connection in 3 dimensional space. Unfortunately, redshift-independent distance estimates for five of these galaxies are not available in the literature. In order to guesstimate their physical properties, in the attached chart we make a "reasonable" assumption that their distances are approximately 52 Mly, similar to the fairly well determined M100 distance. Recent studies regarding matter distribution in our local universe reveal that most major galaxies, the Milky Way and the Andromeda included, are surrounded by substantial numbers of irregular, spheroidal, and elliptical dwarf galaxies, and that most of these are passersby rather than satellites. While complex kinematic studies are required to determine which of the galaxies in the image are gravitationally bound, streams of luminous debris between M100, NGC4322, and NGC4328 are conclusive indicators of tidal interaction. Based on their redshifts, NGC4328 had a close encounter with M100 while moving toward its foreground, and NGC4322 while moving toward its background.
The other prominent galaxy in the field is NGC4312, a nearly edge-on unbarred spiral, discovered by W. Herschel in 1787. Based on its median redshift-independent distance estimate of 35.534 Mly and angular size of 4.37 arcmin, this galaxy is about one third the diameter of the Milky Way, and about one ninth as bright. It is another high peculiar velocity member of the Virgo Galaxy Cluster which has lost much of its neutral hydrogen through ram-pressure stripping. Based on X-ray images, the galaxy is suspected of hosting an intermediate mass black hole (IMBH) with a mass between 10,000 and 300,000 solar.
The image also reveals three faint galaxies in the remote background, and a modest quasar (QSO) lying at a distance of 3.56 billion ly.
Image Details:
Remote Takahashi TOA 150 x 1105 mm
OSC 27 x 300 sec exposures, 9 discarded
2x drizzle, 55% linear crop
Software: DSS, StarNet++ v2, XnView, StarTools
This photo is really just meant to be informative and educational for those that are curious about the Universe, and want to know how things work. As photographers we capture Photons after all, so here is a bit of the Physics behind the light that we love to capture.
This image shows the Electromagnetic Spectrum of light from the Sun, after traveling through Earth's blue Nitrogen rich skies (photographed through a Quantitative Spectroscope).
The nanometer scale in the Spectroscope shows the wavelengths of visible light, that range from 400 nm - 700 nm. Invisible light at shorter wavelengths (beyond violet) include Ultraviolet (UV), X-Ray and Gamma Ray. Longer wavelengths of light (beneath red) include Infrared, Microwave and Radio Waves.
About the Sun:
The Sun is a G-type Main-Sequence Yellow Dwarf (G2V) Star. Through the process of fusion, the Sun burns approximately 600 million tonnes (metric tons) of Hydrogen each second, turning it into 596 million tonnes of Helium. As the Hydrogen nuclei fuse, Photons are emitted, which in short is why the Sun shines (and all the other stars). The Hydrogen Atom is the simplest and most abundant element in the Universe (with only 1 Proton and 1 Electron).
Through the process of fusion, more complex elements are made at different stages of a star's life and death cycle. This is what Carl Sagan meant with one of his well known quotes from Cosmos, “The nitrogen in our DNA, the calcium in our teeth, the iron in our blood, the carbon in our apple pies were made in the interiors of collapsing stars. We are made of starstuff.”
The Sun is roughly 150,000,000 km from Earth. The speed of light is 300,000 km/sec (186,000 miles/sec), which means that the light took just over 8 light-minutes (8 minutes and 26 seconds) to reach the Spectroscope in front of my camera lens.
Here is a very simplistic explanation of Spectroscopy, and how the Electromagnetic Light Spectrum is used in Astrophysics:
This image was photographed through a basic "High School Science Classroom" Quantitative Spectrometer (100 line resolution). With higher resolution Spectrometers on Telescopes, Astronomers can determine what chemical elements Stars and Planets are made of, as each chemical element has a unique light absorption fingerprint, that shows up as dark lines in the spectrum.
The amount that the absorption lines are shifted to red or blue (redshift and blueshift), is due to the Doppler effect and gives an indication if the celestial object is moving towards or away from us, and at what speed. This is how Scientists and Physicists know what the observable Universe is made of, and that the Universe is expanding.
More Info:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spectral_line
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fraunhofer_lines
www.space.com/25732-redshift-blueshift.html
science-edu.larc.nasa.gov/EDDOCS/Wavelengths_for_Colors.html
Interested in Science, Physics & Astronomy?
Visit my Flipboard with lots of interesting articles:
flipboard.com/@mheigan/brain-food
Martin
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A number of quasars can be found around the Leo Triplet galaxy, NGC 3628. Source numbers for redshift and distances were taken from the paper titled, "NGC 3628: Ejection Activity Associated with Quasars."
The NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope is giving scientists their first detailed glimpse of supernovae from a time when our Universe was just a small fraction of its current age. A team using Webb data has identified 10 times more supernovae in the early Universe than were previously known. A few of the newfound exploding stars are the most distant examples of their type, including those used to measure the universe’s expansion rate.
To make these discoveries, the team analyzed imaging data obtained as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) program. Webb is ideal for finding extremely distant supernovae because their light is stretched into longer wavelengths — a phenomenon known as cosmological redshift.
Prior to Webb’s launch, only a handful of supernovae had been found above a redshift of 2, which corresponds to when the universe was only 3.3 billion years old — just 25% of its current age. The JADES sample contains many supernovae that exploded even further in the past, when the universe was less than 2 billion years old. Previously, researchers used the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope to view supernovae from when the universe was in the “young adult” stage. With JADES, scientists are seeing supernovae when the universe was in its “teens” or “pre-teens.” In the future, they hope to look back to the “toddler” or “infant” phase of the universe.
To discover the supernovae, the team compared multiple images taken up to one year apart and looked for sources that disappeared or appeared in those images. These objects that vary in observed brightness over time are called transients, and supernovae are a type of transient. In all, the JADES Transient Survey Sample team uncovered 79 supernovae in a patch of sky only about the thickness of a grain of rice held at arm’s length.
The team identified a number of high-redshift supernovae, including the farthest one ever spectroscopically confirmed, at a redshift of 3.6. Its progenitor star exploded when the universe was only 1.8 billion years old. It is a so-called core-collapse supernova, an explosion of a massive star.
These findings were presented in a press conference at the 244th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Madison, Wisconsin. Learn more about these results here.
[Image description: Six space telescope images show close-ups of two different observations (rows) of three different galaxies (columns). Arrows point to bright blobs that are visible in one observation of the galaxy, but not the other.]
Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; CC BY 4.0
Just uploading a grayscale version of this so I can keep all the observations from this proposition organized better. The color version is here: flic.kr/p/2dqvScX
Establishing HST's Low Redshift Archive of Interacting Systems
All Channels: ACS/WFC F606W
North is 37.73° clockwise from up.
Sundays early autumn tour at Gimborn near Marienheide. Can you spot the two pieces I'm currently testing?
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Sonntags Frühherbst Tour bei Gimborn nahe Marienheide. Könnt ihr die zwei Teile ausmachen, die ich gerade teste?
Mountain due east of Las Vegas on the border of Lake Mead draws in the early red shifted light of morning.
Draco is a constellation in the far northern sky. Its name is Latin for dragon. It was one of the 48 constellations listed by the 2nd century astronomer Ptolemy, and remains one of the 88 modern constellations today. The north pole of the ecliptic is in Draco. Draco is circumpolar (that is, never setting), and can be seen all year from northern latitudes.
Thuban (α Draconis) was the northern pole star from 3942 BC, when it moved farther north than Theta Boötis, until 1793 BC. The Egyptian Pyramids were designed to have one side facing north, with an entrance passage geometrically aligned so that Thuban would be visible at night. Due to the effects of precession, it will again be the pole star around the year AD 21000. It is a blue-white giant star of magnitude 3.7, 309 light-years from Earth. The traditional name of Alpha Draconis, Thuban, means "head of the serpent".
There are three stars under magnitude 3 in Draco. The brighter of the three, and the brightest star in Draco, is Gamma Draconis, traditionally called Etamin or Eltanin. It is an orange giant star of magnitude 2.2, 148 light-years from Earth. The aberration of starlight was discovered in 1728 when James Bradley observed Gamma Draconis. Nearby Beta Draconis, traditionally called Rastaban, is a yellow giant star of magnitude 2.8, 362 light-years from Earth. Its name shares a meaning with Thuban, "head of the serpent".[1]Draco also features several interacting galaxies and galaxy clusters. One such massive cluster is Abell 2218, located at a distance of 3 billion light-years (redshift 0.171).
Draco is home to several double stars and binary stars. Eta Draconis (the proper name is Athebyne) is a double star with a yellow-hued primary of magnitude 2.8 and a white-hued secondary of magnitude 8.2 located south of the primary. The two are separated by 4.8 arcseconds. Mu Draconis, traditionally called Alrakis, is a binary star with two white components. Magnitude 5.6 and 5.7, the two components orbit each other every 670 years. The Alrakis system is 88 light-years from Earth. Nu Draconis is a similar binary star with two white components, 100 light-years from Earth. Both components are of magnitude 4.9 and can be distinguished in a small amateur telescope or a pair of binoculars. Omicron Draconis is a double star divisible in small telescopes. The primary is an orange giant of magnitude 4.6, 322 light-years from Earth. The secondary is of magnitude 7.8. Psi Draconis (the proper name is Dziban ) is a binary star divisible in binoculars and small amateur telescopes, 72 light-years from Earth. The primary is a yellow-white star of magnitude 4.6 and the secondary is a yellow star of magnitude 5.8. 16 Draconis and 17 Draconis are part of a triple star 400 light-years from Earth, divisible in medium-sized amateur telescopes. The primary, a blue-white star of magnitude 5.1, is itself a binary with components of magnitude 5.4 and 6.5. The secondary is of magnitude 5.5 and the system is 400 light-years away.[1] 20 Draconis is a binary star with a white-hued primary of magnitude 7.1 and a yellow-hued secondary of magnitude 7.3 located east-northeast of the primary. The two are separated by 1.2 arcseconds at their maximum and have an orbital period of 420 years. As of 2012, the two components are approaching their maximum separation.[4] 39 Draconis is a triple star 188 light-years from Earth, divisible in small amateur telescopes. The primary is a blue star of magnitude 5.0, the secondary is a yellow star of magnitude 7.4, and the tertiary is a star of magnitude 8.0; the tertiary appears to be a close companion to the primary. 40 Draconis and 41 Draconis are a binary star divisible in small telescopes. The two orange dwarf stars are 170 light-years from Earth and are of magnitude 5.7 and 6.1.
R Draconis is a red Mira-type variable star with a period of about 8 months. Its average minimum magnitude is approximately 12.4, and its average maximum magnitude is approximately 7.6. It was discovered to be a variable star by Hans Geelmuyden in 1876.
The constellation contains the star recently named Kepler-10, which has been confirmed to be orbited by Kepler-10b, the smallest rocky Earth-sized planet yet detected outside of the Solar System.
One of deep-sky objects in Draco is the Cat's Eye Nebula (NGC 6543), a planetary nebula approximately 3,000 light-years away that was discovered by English astronomer William Herschel in 1786. It is 9th magnitude and was named for its appearance in the Hubble Space Telescope, though it appears as a fuzzy blue-green disk in an amateur telescope.[1] NGC 6543 has a very complex shape due to gravitational interactions between the components of the multiple star at its center, the progenitor of the nebula approximately 1,000 years ago.[6] It is located 9.6 arcminutes away from the north ecliptic pole to the west-northwest. It is also related to IC 4677, a nebula that appears as a bar 1.8 arcminutes to the west of the Cat's Eye nebula. In long-term exposures, IC 4677 appears as a portion of a ring surrounding the planetary nebula.
There are several faint galaxies in Draco, one of which is the lenticular galaxy NGC 5866 (sometimes considered to be Messier Object 102) that bears its name to a small group that also includes the spiral galaxies NGC 5879 and NGC 5907. Another is the Draco Dwarf Galaxy, one of the least luminous galaxies with an absolute magnitude of −8.6 and a diameter of only about 3,500 light years, discovered by Albert G. Wilson of Lowell Observatory in 1954. Another dwarf galaxy found in this constellation is PGC 39058.
PGC 39058, a dwarf galaxy found within the Draco constellation – picture taken by ESA/Hubble & NASA.
Draco also features several interacting galaxies and galaxy clusters. One such massive cluster is Abell 2218, located at a distance of 3 billion light-years (redshift 0.171). It acts as a gravitational lens for even more distant background galaxies, allowing astronomers to study those galaxies as well as Abell 2218 itself; more specifically, the lensing effect allows astronomers to confirm the cluster's mass as determined by x-ray emissions. One of the most well-known interacting galaxies is Arp 188, also called the "Tadpole Galaxy". Named for its appearance, which features a "tail" of stars 280,000 light-years long, the Tadpole Galaxy is at a distance of 420 million light-years (redshift 0.0314). The tail of stars drawn off the Tadpole Galaxy appears blue because the gravitational interaction disturbed clouds of gas and sparked star formation.
Q1634+706 is a quasar that holds the distinction of being the most distant object usually visible in an amateur telescope. At magnitude 14.4, it appears star-like, though it is at a distance of 12.9 billion light-years. The light of Q1634+706 has taken 8.6 billion years to reach Earth, a discrepancy attributable to the expansion of the universe.
Located in the northern celestial hemisphere, Abell 1703 is composed of over one hundred different galaxies that act as a powerful cosmic telescope, or gravitational lens. The gravitational lens produced by the massive galaxy cluster in the foreground (the yellow mostly elliptical galaxies scattered across the image) bends the light rays in a way that can stretch the images and so amplify the brightness of the light rays from more distant galaxies. In the process it distorts their shapes and produces multiple banana-shaped images of the original galaxies. The result is the stunning image seen here - a view deeper into the Universe than possible with current technology alone. Abell 1703 is located at 3 billion light-years from the Earth (redshift 0.26).
NGC 7479, Caldwell 44, Pegasus, Propeller Galaxy
NGC7479 is a distorted barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Pegasus, discovered by W. Herschel in 1784. With apparent diameter of 4.4 arcmin, and apparent magnitude of 10.85 (V), visual observation calls for large apertures. However, its basic structures are evident photographically with modest telescopes. From its measurable properties we can derive light travel distance (lookback time) of 110 million light years, redshift recession velocity of 2,379 km/s, actual diameter of 140,000 ly, and absolute magnitude of -21.83 (V), approximately 1.5 times as bright as the Milky Way. NGC7479 has an active galactic nucleus (AGN) which is 8.5 times brighter in the near IR (z filter) than in the visible band, and which emits narrow spectral lines of weakly ionized elements. These characteristics classify it as a Seyfert 2 and a LINER galaxy. It is powered by an actively accreting central supermassive black hole (SMBH) obscured by a large, dense cloud of light-absobing gas and dust. The nucleus is also active at radio frequencies, suggesting the SMBH has polar jets emitting synchrotron radiation. Bright blue floccules in the spiral arms and even within the bar are OB Associations, or vast clusters of recently formed blue giant stars which emit most of their energy in the ultraviolet band. NGC7479 is an isolated field galaxy with no nearby neighbors. Starburst activity, several stellar streams, and gravitational distortion in the W spiral arm are thought to have been caused by a merger with one or more dwarf satellite galaxies between 300 and 100 million years ago.
As the annotated image illustrates, different spectral bands reveal different details within a galaxy. In the ultraviolet band (GALEX), the most prominent features are OB associations, starburst regions, and reflection nebulae. The compact, round UV signal overlapping the N arm of the bar may be the remnant nucleus of a merged dwarf galaxy. The NGC7479 nucleus is not prominent because it is surrounded by a thick layer of gas and dust which absorb and scatter predominantly UV light. However, the brightest feature on the infrared (2MASS) image of the galaxy is precisely the main galactic nucleus with a central SMBH, because longer wavelengths are less obsured. The bulge and the bar are also distinctive due to the presence of ancient cool and red Population II stars. Radio frequency imaging of the galaxy reveals the presence of a bright jet-like feature, centered on the nucleus, and extending through the bar about 20,000 light years in the N and in the S direction. The jet's spiral morphology mildly curves in the direction opposite to that of the stellar and gaseous spiral arms, suggesting that the two structures may be counter-rotating. Jet bending can be caused by precession of the central SMBH accretion disk, by the presence of a binary central SMBH, and/or an off center merger with another galaxy. Based on the rate of expansion and the maximum distance from the nucleus, the jet is felt to be less than 10 million years old.
A large galaxy cluster is visible in the remote background at an estimated light travel distance of 1.5 to 2 billion light years. Only two of these have assigned identifiers. Their measurable and derived properties are listed in the chart on the annotated image.
Image details:
-Remote Takahashi TOA 150 x 1105 mm, Paramount GT GEM,
-OSC 34 x 300 sec, 2x drizzle, 50% linear crop,
-Software: DSS, XnView, StarNet++ v2, StarTools v1.3 and 1.7, Cosmological Calculator v3
it might be hard for people these days to imagine that the was a time before editing tools of the digital kind all around us... this is me as a youngling a picture taken of me holding my own head in my hand which I used as a Christmas card and sent to fiends and friends alike...
this is the original photo without the Christmas greetings... well the original photo of my hand since the pic of my mug is another photo taken by me, a kind of double-self-portrait...
Peace and Noise!