APOD: Unusual Starburst Galaxy NGC 1313 (2010 Mar 30)

[APOD Robot]

Unusual Starburst Galaxy NGC 1313

Explanation: Why is this galaxy so discombobulated? Usually, galaxies this topsy-turvy result from a recent collision with a neighboring galaxy. Spiral galaxy NGC 1313, however, appears to be alone. Brightly lit with new and blue massive stars, star formation appears so rampant in NGC 1313 that it has been labeled a starburst galaxy. Strange features of NGC 1313 include that its spiral arms are lopsided and its rotational axis is not at the center of the nuclear bar. Pictured above, NGC 1313 spans about 50,000 light years and lies only about 15 million light years away toward the constellation of the Reticle (Reticulum). Continued numerical modeling of galaxies like NGC 1313 might shed some light on its unusual nature.

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[neufer]

Right after we terraform Mars we should plan to combobulate NGC 1313.

[Oldfart]

Maybe this represents a collision between two (or maybe three?) galaxies that is going on right now --?

OF

[Vincent Pinto]

The immensity of space is at once staggering and yet marvellous. And to assist us, the "light-year" is a very easily understandable term although not fully apprehendable due to our natural limitations. So I marvel at the immensity keeping in my mind that it is a measure of distance only, and not one of time.

[dduggan47]

The immensity of space is at once staggering and yet marvellous. And to assist us, the "light-year" is a very easily understandable term although not fully apprehendable due to our natural limitations. So I marvel at the immensity keeping in my mind that it is a measure of distance only, and not one of time.

I'd have thought that since we're dealing with light, that distance and time are pretty much the same thing. We're seeing the object as it looked 15 million years ago.

What am I missing?

[Vincent Pinto]

I'd have thought that since we're dealing with light, that distance and time are pretty much the same thing. We're seeing the object as it looked 15 million years ago.

What am I missing?[/quote]

We colloquially say sometimes that a store is 5 minutes drive when in reality the store might be say 5 miles away. But miles is a measure of distance, and minutes a measure of time, and distance and time are not the same thing. But we see how easy it is with constant usage to "fuse" the two (actually, confuse the two). What is holding the two together is the speed of travel, which in this case has not changed; the assumption being that the laws of physics held true and invariant from the time we left home right until we reached the store. This reasoning is quite understandably extended and assumed to be true of light when the universe as a whole is considered from its beginning.

Unfortunately the rules of this forum don't allow me to say anything more because I have come to cross over the line to the Theory of Creation (as against the Theory of Macro-Evolution where I was earlier). But, if you would like more info, which is very good, please google: "John G. Hartnett" "A new cosmology: solution to the starlight travel time problem" as a starting point. It has helped me a good deal.

[Northweldor]

This should be named the Vulture Galaxy!

[orin stepanek]

This should be named the Vulture Galaxy!

I like Starburst; It reminds me of a star shell exploding during a festive celebration!

[wonderboy]

I dunno, I think it kinda looks like a big dog giving someone a paw.

[Redbone]

It appears to me that the galaxy did not assume the usual disk configuration, but instead is more three-dimensional. Perhaps this is obvious and the question is why didn't it assume the standard, more two-dimensional disk configuration? I wouldn't be able to speculate on that since I don't know the theory of why galaxies tend to form disks. I do understand the reasoning behind the rotation.

If we arbitrarily pick a direction in the universe, and mark it as North, is there a preference with respect to the rotational directions of galaxies?

[emc]

I like the word ‘discombobulated’, I use it often even around my friend Bob. I venture a guess that today’s APOD galaxy is simply the aftermath of some intergalactic war and we are witness to the loser’s vantage point in this image. Never know what them space aliens are capable of doing… even to a fine and probably previously more aesthetic natural cosmic wonder. Now it’s just discombobulated all over the place.

[RaceBannon]

To my untrained eye, it looks NGC1313 once had the traditional "disc shape" with everything spinning in a vortex around a central black hole. But it looks like the black hole quit sucking and that the black hole may have had some sort of "blowback" (seen as the column shape coming from the center of the galaxy).

[Steve Cerwin]

Perhaps it lacks a black hole to form a well defined center.

[Chris Peterson]

I'd have thought that since we're dealing with light, that distance and time are pretty much the same thing. We're seeing the object as it looked 15 million years ago.

What am I missing?

It's a question of semantics. "Now" has formal meanings in physics, and can be used different ways. It is perfectly correct to talk about "now" in terms of the relationship between two objects and their light cones. In a very real sense, we are seeing every object as it is "now", even if it is 15 million light years away. It doesn't matter if the light took 15 million years to reach us- we are seeing it as it is now in our own frame of reference. In that sense, what is happening "now" if our clocks could somehow be synchronized (which is a difficult concept) is actually happening 15 million years in the future.

It is also possible to use "now" as if there were a universal clock. It really comes down to the math chosen for an analysis, and it's not so clear that either way of using "now" has a better or more accurate physical meaning than the other.

[jando35]

The immensity of space is at once staggering and yet marvellous. And to assist us, the "light-year" is a very easily understandable term although not fully apprehendable due to our natural limitations. So I marvel at the immensity keeping in my mind that it is a measure of distance only, and not one of time.

I'd have thought that since we're dealing with light, that distance and time are pretty much the same thing. We're seeing the object as it looked 15 million years ago.

What am I missing?

If we are sticking to verifiable science ddugan47, you are 100% correct - both time and distance are implied by the term 'light year'. Anything else is obfuscation and discombobulation .................

[Dan Everest]

What a wild galaxy! My guess would be that it is an old collision. There are remnants of the spiral of one of the galaxies. But the separate identities are fading. The two are merging and will probably form a new spiral eventually. I am curious about other merging galaxies, to know if there are examples of young, middle-aged and old mergers and how they might look. Some future APOD's?

[Irish]

Perhaps the absence of a large enough black hole which would provide the method for an equalized rotation?

[J2580456]

Perhaps the offending galaxy is on the opposite side of the one we're viewing so we can't see it.

But, since there are such an apparently huge number of young blue stars in comparison with the older red ones, I think we're looking at a nearby (if 15Mly is near!) proto-galaxy ... one that hasn't had time to get organized yet.

[gwrtheyrn]

Is a close encounter with high relative velocity between this galaxy and a dense dark matter concentration out of the question?

[Kalen]

Maybe the collision is happening right in the picture itself. Could it be that both galaxies are imaged in this picture, caught in the middle of a collision where one galaxy is passing through another?

[letmebefrank]

Could the expelled smbh have caused a central direction "implosion" in this galaxy merger? Evidence, such as the central ring formation displaced upward in this photo, looks very similar to a smoke ring formed as a wind burst from one's lips while blowing smoke. I.e. the gravitational effect of a rapidly moving massive object plowing through the center of this galaxy.

[jando35]

Maybe the collision is happening right in the picture itself. Could it be that both galaxies are imaged in this picture, caught in the middle of a collision where one galaxy is passing through another?

The photo seems to show at least two - perhaps 3 galaxies; from the centre to 2 o'clock is a spiral arm; from the centre to 7 o'clock is another; and at 1130 is an interesting circle of stars - from the collision perhaps?

[earl-bo]

Could the colliding galaxy be behind NGC 1313 to us?

[doesn'tmatter]

This galaxy should be called Rearing Horse Galaxy. It looks like a horse on its hind legs.

[Dr Ohm]

I believe this Starburst Galaxy NGC-1313 is the best proof I've seen yet that Black Holes do wander around out there in the Universe. One passed close enough to this once previously Barred Spiral Galaxy and literally tore it apart. It caused massive gravitational waves to pass thru it causing all the gas & dust compression into the rampant Star urst Formation we see today. Once this Galaxy finally pulls back together it is going to be very bright. Just my opinion.