Starship Asterisk*

[quote="DavidLeodis"][quote="neufer"][quote="Case"]There's also a nasty Ursa Minor/Ursa Major mixup in the various releases by NASA.[/quote]
[url=http://server1.wikisky.org/starview?object_type=2&object_id=1328&object_name=NGC+6217&locale=EN][b]NGC 6217[/b][/url] is definitely at a major distance in the Minor constellation
as opposed to at a minor distance in the Major constellation.[/quote]

I've noticed that in the related Hubble European Information Centre release about the image it states "The galaxy lies 6 million light-years away in the north circumpolar constellation Ursa Major". This is just adding to my confusion! Am I right in assuming that Ursa Minor must be about 54 mly futher away from us than Ursa Major :?:[/quote]
Ursa Major & Ursa Minor (like all classical constellations) are made up of local Milky Way Stars.

These classical constellations are used to locate the [b]approximate angular position[/b] of [b]much[/b] more distance objects such as NGC 6217.

[quote="neufer"][quote="Case"]There's also a nasty Ursa Minor/Ursa Major mixup in the various releases by NASA.[/quote]
[url=http://server1.wikisky.org/starview?object_type=2&object_id=1328&object_name=NGC+6217&locale=EN][b]NGC 6217[/b][/url] is definitely at a major distance in the Minor constellation
as opposed to at a minor distance in the Major constellation.[/quote]

I've noticed that in the related Hubble European Information Centre release about the image it states "The galaxy lies 6 million light-years away in the north circumpolar constellation Ursa Major". This is just adding to my confusion! Am I right in assuming that Ursa Minor must be about 54 mly futher away from us than Ursa Major :?:

[quote] that likely houses a supermassive black hole[/quote]

interesting way to describe how a galaxy surrounds the blackhole using the word "houses"

I guess its better than using the word "cocoon" :shock:

[img]http://i45.tinypic.com/k1xw5w.jpg[/img]

[quote="Case"]There's also a nasty Ursa Minor/Ursa Major mixup in the various releases by NASA.[/quote]
[url=http://server1.wikisky.org/starview?object_type=2&object_id=1328&object_name=NGC+6217&locale=EN][b]NGC 6217[/b][/url] is definitely at a major distance in the Minor constellation
as opposed to at a minor distance in the Major constellation.

A wider field DSS2 image (from [url=http://www.wikisky.org/]WikiSky[/url]) shows the fainter outer spiral arms that fall outside the APOD image:
[img]http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/1742/wikiskydss2ngc6217.jpg[/img]

There's also a nasty Ursa Minor/Ursa Major mixup in the various releases by NASA.

[quote="APOD Robot"][url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091228.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_091228.jpg[/img] [size=150]Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 6217[/size][/url]

Light takes about [b]60 million years[/b] to reach us from [url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001A%26A...376..393P]NGC 6217[/url], which spans about 30,000 [url=http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html]light years[/url] across and can be found toward the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rnCjUZ4mgA]constellation[/url] of the Little Bear ([url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursa_Minor]Ursa Minor[/url]).>>[/quote]
I noticed that about a third of NGC 6217 url sites have the distance
at [b]6 million light-years[/b]... possibly all from the following:
[quote=" http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/multimedia/ero/ero_ngc6217.html"]

The galaxy lies [b]6 million light-years[/b] away in the north circumpolar constellation Ursa Major.[/quote]

[url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap091228.html][img]http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/S_091228.jpg[/img] [size=150]Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 6217[/size][/url]

[b] Explanation: [/b] Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even our own [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap000130.html]Milky Way Galaxy[/url] is thought to have a [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050825.html]modest central bar[/url]. Prominently barred spiral galaxy NGC 6217, [url=http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2009/25/image/bc/]pictured above[/url], was captured in spectacular detail in this recently released image taken by the newly repaired [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Camera_for_Surveys]Advanced Camera for Surveys[/url] on the orbiting [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope]Hubble Space Telescope[/url]. Visible are dark filamentary [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060219.html]dust lanes[/url], young [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/open_clusters.html]clusters[/url] of bright blue stars, red [url=http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/emission_nebulae.html]emission nebulas[/url] of glowing hydrogen gas, a long bright bar of stars across the center, and a bright [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_galactic_nucleus]active nucleus[/url] that likely houses a supermassive [url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html]black hole[/url]. Light takes about 60 million years to reach us from [url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2001A%26A...376..393P]NGC 6217[/url], which spans about 30,000 [url=http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html]light years[/url] across and can be found toward the [url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1rnCjUZ4mgA]constellation[/url] of the Little Bear ([url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursa_Minor]Ursa Minor[/url]).

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