by Ann » Thu Feb 02, 2017 3:14 pm
I'm late to the party, but I must say that this is a really splendid image!
My amateur opinion is that NGC 1317 (the smaller, perfectly shaped galaxy) has not yet collided with NGC 1316 (although it will probably do so in the not-too-distant future) and that the contorted shape, irregular shells and broken dust lanes of NGC 1316 are the results of a previous merger.
The fact that NGC 1316 is a bright radio source also suggests that it has recently undergone a merger, and it may have produced jets in the past.
Sci News wrote:
The astronomers found that almost all of the galaxies with large amounts of radio emission, implying the presence of jets, were associated with galactic mergers.
And NGC 1316 produces large amounts of radio emission, and it is indeed associated with at least one merger! We're only missing the jet.
Star formation is being efficiently quenched in both NGC 1316 and NGC 1317 by the violence of past mergers and present tidal forces in NGC 1316, including forces that undoubtedly keep sending new helpings of material into the supermassive black hole of NGC 1316 and causing new galactic upheavals.
Note the perfect little blue ring near the center of NGC 1317, the only place in this galactic pair where young stars still exist.
Ann
I'm late to the party, but I must say that this is a really splendid image! :D
My amateur opinion is that NGC 1317 (the smaller, perfectly shaped galaxy) has not yet collided with NGC 1316 (although it will probably do so in the not-too-distant future) and that the contorted shape, irregular shells and broken dust lanes of NGC 1316 are the results of a previous merger.
The fact that NGC 1316 is a bright radio source also suggests that it has recently undergone a merger, and it may have produced jets in the past.
[quote][url=http://www.sci-news.com/astronomy/science-black-holes-jets-galactic-mergers-02858.html]Sci News[/url] wrote:
The astronomers found that almost all of the galaxies with large amounts of radio emission, implying the presence of jets, were associated with galactic mergers.[/quote]
And NGC 1316 produces large amounts of radio emission, and it is indeed associated with at least one merger! We're only missing the jet.
Star formation is being efficiently quenched in both NGC 1316 and NGC 1317 by the violence of past mergers and present tidal forces in NGC 1316, including forces that undoubtedly keep sending new helpings of material into the supermassive black hole of NGC 1316 and causing new galactic upheavals.
Note the perfect little blue ring near the center of NGC 1317, the only place in this galactic pair where young stars still exist.
Ann