by Ann » Mon Feb 06, 2017 6:10 am
This is a most striking picture of an extreme distortion of a spiral galaxy as a result of tidal forces arising from interaction with another galaxy. The picture is beautifully processed, too.
The spiral galaxy in question, NGC 2936, looks very blue, but it isn't dominated by star formation at all. We can clearly see star formation in the "beak" of the "penguin" (because it looks more like a
penguin to me), and there is also star formation along the beautifully formed "neck". The latter feature is actually a part of the former ring around a likely galactic bar. There is also star formation along the "tail feathers".
(I love how a number of little galaxies - background galaxies, of course - seem to have been "caught" in the "tail feathers of the penguin", as if they were fish that had been caught in a net.)
And look at how that perfectly curved long dust lane stretches from beyond the edge of the "beak" all they way into the "tail feathers," where it breaks up.
The overall colors of NGC 2936 are unimpressive and not strikingly blue at all. The U-B of NGC 2936 is +0.02, which is moderately ultraviolet, whereas its B-V is 0,84, which is not blue at all. We can compare these colors with the colors of the obviously elliptical, non-starforming galaxy, NGC 2937. The U-B of NGC 2937 is +0.51, which is
much redder than the U-B index of distorted spiral galaxy NGC 2936. But the B-V index of the elliptical galaxy is not much redder than the B-V index of the spiral galaxy, 0.94 versus 0.84.
NGC 2936 is a galaxy with a bright massive population of old red stars, plus localized clusters of bright new star formation. After NGC 2936 has merged with its elliptical neighbor, the galaxy merger product may experience one last bright burst of star formation, after it will likely settle into one large, red and dead, galaxy.
Ann
This is a most striking picture of an extreme distortion of a spiral galaxy as a result of tidal forces arising from interaction with another galaxy. The picture is beautifully processed, too.
The spiral galaxy in question, NGC 2936, looks very blue, but it isn't dominated by star formation at all. We can clearly see star formation in the "beak" of the "penguin" (because it looks more like a [url=http://l7.alamy.com/zooms/297d8e28deb24801b894c860f07a0ee6/emperor-penguin-with-egg-c4egee.jpg]penguin[/url] to me), and there is also star formation along the beautifully formed "neck". The latter feature is actually a part of the former ring around a likely galactic bar. There is also star formation along the "tail feathers".
(I love how a number of little galaxies - background galaxies, of course - seem to have been "caught" in the "tail feathers of the penguin", as if they were fish that had been caught in a net.) :fish: :rocketship: :fish:
And look at how that perfectly curved long dust lane stretches from beyond the edge of the "beak" all they way into the "tail feathers," where it breaks up.
The overall colors of NGC 2936 are unimpressive and not strikingly blue at all. The U-B of NGC 2936 is +0.02, which is moderately ultraviolet, whereas its B-V is 0,84, which is not blue at all. We can compare these colors with the colors of the obviously elliptical, non-starforming galaxy, NGC 2937. The U-B of NGC 2937 is +0.51, which is [i]much[/i] redder than the U-B index of distorted spiral galaxy NGC 2936. But the B-V index of the elliptical galaxy is not much redder than the B-V index of the spiral galaxy, 0.94 versus 0.84.
NGC 2936 is a galaxy with a bright massive population of old red stars, plus localized clusters of bright new star formation. After NGC 2936 has merged with its elliptical neighbor, the galaxy merger product may experience one last bright burst of star formation, after it will likely settle into one large, red and dead, galaxy.
Ann