RushRevisited Posted September 7, 2004 Posted September 7, 2004 From APOD on Saturday: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0409/m51_hst.jpg Explanation: The Whirlpool Galaxy is a classic spiral galaxy. At only 30 million light years distant and fully 60 thousand light years across, M51, also known as NGC 5194, is one of the brightest and most picturesque galaxies on the sky. The above image is a digital combination of a ground-based image from the 0.9-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory and a space-based image from the Hubble Space Telescope highlighting sharp features normally too red to be seen. Anyone with a good pair of binoculars, however, can see this Whirlpool toward the constellation of Canes Venatici. M51 is a spiral galaxy of type Sc and is the dominant member of a whole group of galaxies. Astronomers speculate that M51's spiral structure is primarily due to its gravitational interaction with a smaller galaxy just off the top of this digitally sharpened image.
Moonraker Posted September 7, 2004 Posted September 7, 2004 Very nice angle we have on it, we are seeing it pretty much completely perpendicular.
The Notorious B.S.G. Posted September 7, 2004 Posted September 7, 2004 A little Drano, a little plunger action, and just look what happens......
Snowdog Posted September 7, 2004 Posted September 7, 2004 RR, you almost have me ready to go out and purchase a telescope
Relaxed_Jack Posted September 8, 2004 Posted September 8, 2004 QUOTE (Snowdog @ Sep 7 2004, 05:22 PM) RR, you almost have me ready to go out and purchase a telescope I know RR would be MORE THAN HAPPY to lend his out.......
RushRevisited Posted September 8, 2004 Author Posted September 8, 2004 http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0409/bhtorus_esa_big.jpg Explanation: Why do some black hole surroundings appear brighter than others? In the centers of active galaxies, supermassive black holes at least thousands of times the mass of our Sun dominate. Many, called Seyfert Type I, are very bright in visible light. Others, called Seyfert Type II, are rather dim. The difference might be caused by some black holes accreting much more matter than others. Alternatively, the black holes in the center of Seyfert Type II galaxies might be obscured by a surrounding torus. To help choose between these competing hypotheses, the nearby Seyfert II galaxy NGC 4388 has been observed in X-ray light recently by many recent Earth-orbiting X-ray observatories, including CGRO, SIGMA, BeppoSAX, INTEGRAL, Chandra, and XMM-Newton. Recent data from INTEGRAL and XMM-Newton have found that the X-ray flux in some X-ray colors varies rapidly, while flux in other X-ray colors is quite steady. The constant flux and apparent absorption of very specific X-ray colors by cool iron together give evidence that the central black hole in NGC 4388 is seen through a thick torus composed of molecular gas and dust.
GhostGirl Posted September 8, 2004 Posted September 8, 2004 These photos are breathtaking! Wow...I feel like a mere speck of dust...
Moonraker Posted September 8, 2004 Posted September 8, 2004 Holy crap RR, that is an incredible picture of a galaxy that is very hard to find. The only way to get that kind of shot of a Seyfert galaxy is if you taking from an angle completely parallel to the dust cloud surrounding the galaxy. Very beautiful shot there.
Jack Aubrey Posted September 8, 2004 Posted September 8, 2004 QUOTE (GhostGirl @ Sep 8 2004, 10:31 AM) These photos are breathtaking! Wow...I feel like a mere speck of dust... In the immortal words of Charlton Heston: 'It squashes a man's ego.'
RushRevisited Posted September 9, 2004 Author Posted September 9, 2004 Explanation: These three bright nebulae are often featured in telescopic tours of the constellation Sagittarius and the view toward the center of our Milky Way galaxy. In fact, 18th century cosmic tourist Charles Messier cataloged two of them; M8, the nebula above and left of center, and colorful M20 at the lower left. The third, NGC 6559, is at the right of M8, separated from the the larger nebula by a dark dust lane. All three are stellar nurseries about five thousand light-years or so distant. The expansive M8, over a hundred light-years across, is also known as the Lagoon Nebula while M20's popular moniker is the Trifid. In this gorgeous digital composition, the dominant red color of the emission nebulae is due to glowing hydrogen gas energized by the radiation of hot, young stars. The contrasting blue hues, most striking in the Trifid as well as NGC 6559, are due to dust reflected starlight. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0409/sagTriplet_gendler_c1.jpg
Relaxed_Jack Posted September 9, 2004 Posted September 9, 2004 Did you check out the APOD on 8-30-04 about the comet they discovered last year may be visible next month? Sounds like a good time to head out to the country.
Phoenix Posted September 9, 2004 Posted September 9, 2004 QUOTE (RushRevisited @ Sep 9 2004, 08:07 AM) http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0409/sagTriplet_gendler_c1.jpg What a beauty......
Phoenix Posted September 9, 2004 Posted September 9, 2004 The Hubble Heritage Picture for September http://heritage.stsci.edu/2004/27/NGC6543/0427aa.jpg
RushRevisited Posted September 9, 2004 Author Posted September 9, 2004 QUOTE (Relaxed_Jack @ Sep 9 2004, 09:13 AM) Did you check out the APOD on 8-30-04 about the comet they discovered last year may be visible next month? Sounds like a good time to head out to the country.
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