by Ann » Tue Apr 28, 2015 4:47 am
I'm very glad to see a gorgeous spiral galaxy here!
NGC 2841 is indeed a fascinating galaxy. It is a so called flocculent galaxy, which means that it doesn't have any long sweeping arms, but instead a patchy disk displaying an overall spiral structure. The kind of star formation seen in NGC 2841, which occurs at rather random spots in the disk, is called stochastic star formation.
It is clear that NGC 2841 has not undergone any sort of major star formation, let alone any major mergers, recently. Look how regular and "settled" it looks! Compare its appearance with some of the big star formation-chaotic spiral galaxies like, say,
M101.
Note the neat fact that the dust lanes closest to the yellow bulge look bluer on the far side than on the near side. That is because the dust on the far side is scattering the (slightly bluish) star light our way, like a blue reflection nebula. But on the near side, the dust is blocking the blue star light, causing a reddening effect.
Ann
I'm very glad to see a gorgeous spiral galaxy here! :D
NGC 2841 is indeed a fascinating galaxy. It is a so called flocculent galaxy, which means that it doesn't have any long sweeping arms, but instead a patchy disk displaying an overall spiral structure. The kind of star formation seen in NGC 2841, which occurs at rather random spots in the disk, is called stochastic star formation.
It is clear that NGC 2841 has not undergone any sort of major star formation, let alone any major mergers, recently. Look how regular and "settled" it looks! Compare its appearance with some of the big star formation-chaotic spiral galaxies like, say, [url=http://www.waid-observatory.com/images/m/m101-2004-05-24-715.jpg]M101[/url].
Note the neat fact that the dust lanes closest to the yellow bulge look bluer on the far side than on the near side. That is because the dust on the far side is scattering the (slightly bluish) star light our way, like a blue reflection nebula. But on the near side, the dust is blocking the blue star light, causing a reddening effect.
Ann