APOD: M82: Galaxy with a Supergalactic Wind (2010 Dec 19)

[APOD Robot]

M82: Galaxy with a Supergalactic Wind

Explanation: What's lighting up the Cigar Galaxy? M82, as this irregular galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near large spiral galaxy M81. This doesn't fully explain the source of the red-glowing outwardly expanding gas, however. Recent evidence indicates that this gas is being driven out by the combined emerging particle winds of many stars, together creating a galactic superwind.. The above photographic mosaic highlights a specific color of red light strongly emitted by ionized hydrogen gas, showing detailed filaments of this gas. The filaments extend for over 10,000 light years. The 12-million light-year distant Cigar Galaxy is the brightest galaxy in the sky in infrared light, and can be seen in visible light with a small telescope towards the constellation of the Great Bear (Ursa Major).

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[neufer]

M82: Galaxy with a Supergalactic Wind

Explanation: What's lighting up the Cigar Galaxy? M82, as this irregular galaxy is also known, was stirred up by a recent pass near large spiral galaxy M81. This doesn't fully explain the source of the red-glowing outwardly expanding gas, however. Recent evidence indicates that this gas is being driven out by the combined emerging particle winds of many stars, together creating a galactic superwind.. The above photographic mosaic highlights a specific color of red light strongly emitted by ionized hydrogen gas, showing detailed filaments of this gas.

______ The English Patient

[Magic Pan Restaurant]

KRAMER: These Dominicans really know their way round a crêpe.
Look at that. It's like they're rolling a double corona.

[The three Dominican guys are making crêpes, and then rolling them around fillings.]

KRAMER: (to one of the guys) Just a cigar made outta bisquik, huh, Guillermo? [The Dominican smiles back.]

[Over in another part of the restaurant, Danielle sits in a booth with Neil.]

DANIELLE: I'm very happy with George. I'm sorry Neil, it's over.

Neil's head drops at this news.

DANIELLE: Come on, let's just eat our crêpes.

[The Dominicans are handing out plates of rolled crêpes to various tables.]

[At one table a customer prods a rolled crêpe with his fork
and a jet of scalding hot filling squirts out into his face.]

CUSTOMER: (pained scream) Aaghh!! My face!

[At another table, another customer digs his fork in, and is rewarded with a faceful of blistering filling.
Neil sticks his fork into his crêpe and recoils as hot liquid jets into his face.]

DANIELLE: (concerned cry) Neil!

[The restaurant is in chaos as yells of pain come from all sides.
Elaine, Jerry and Kramer look round at the commotion.]

JERRY: Why are the crêpes spraying?

KRAMER: (looks over at the three guys) The Dominicans are rolling them too tight.
(regretful) Uhm, well, that's why you gotta get real Cubans.

[Another scream rents the air.]

[León]

It is certainly a great contribution the discovery of the wind as the cause of the extragalactic emission,

Click to view full size image

but for understanding the image of the record date is the existence of black holes responsible for the X-ray amisión and the recent discovery in emisisón radius of an object of unknown characteristics with a speed that "exceed"? the speed of light

Click to view full size image

[orin stepanek]

Maybe M82 is an exploding cigar.

Click to view full size image

[Beyond]

[quote="León"]It is certainly a great contribution the discovery of the wind as the cause of the extragalactic emission,

Click to view full size image

Hey Leon, where did you find the picture of the 'blow-hard' with the cinamon bun hair

[Beyond]

Maybe M82 is an exploding cigar.

Click to view full size image

Hmmm......maybe we should rename M82 and call it "Neuferville"

[León]

It is certainly a great contribution the discovery of the wind as the cause of the extragalactic emission,

Click to view full size image

Hey Leon, where did you find the picture of the 'blow-hard' with the cinamon bun hair

Here:
http://apodando.blogspot.com/
http://www.google.com.ar/search?q=eolo% ... =firefox-a

[mexhunter]

No doubt, this is the best image of M82 I've seen.
Greetings
César

[JohnD]

Wrenching the thread away from a discussion of Cubanesque cigars and Aeolian plaques, and then pushing it off course again.........

We see more and more pictures of galaxies in turmoil. I'm clear that even in a galactic collision stars do not collide, but the gas and dust clouds do resulting in enormous particle and radiation fluxes. These occur within our own galaxy, on a lesser scale.
Do these events affect the possibility of life out there? The Drake equation does not include a specific factor for 'inhabitable, but too much radiation', which could mean that vast numbers of otherwise habitable planets are and remain sterile.

John

[Beyond]

It is certainly a great contribution the discovery of the wind as the cause of the extragalactic emission,

Click to view full size image

Hey Leon, where did you find the picture of the 'blow-hard' with the cinamon bun hair

Here:
http://apodando.blogspot.com/
http://www.google.com.ar/search?q=eolo% ... =firefox-a

Si, Leon, but alas, i no-comprehendo spanish opinando. thanks anyway.

[neufer]

We see more and more pictures of galaxies in turmoil. I'm clear that even in a galactic collision stars do not collide, but the gas and dust clouds do resulting in enormous particle and radiation fluxes. These occur within our own galaxy, on a lesser scale.

Do these events affect the possibility of life out there? The Drake equation does not include a specific factor for 'inhabitable, but too much radiation', which could mean that vast numbers of otherwise habitable planets are and remain sterile.

Do you mean: 'habitable but for too much radiation'
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Inhabitable, a. [L. inhabitabilis: cf. F. inhabitable. See In- not, and Habitable.]
___ Not habitable; not suitable to be inhabited. [Obs.]

"The frozen ridges of the Alps Or other ground inhabitable." - Shak.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
Note that much earth life lives deep in the ocean or underground
and is not that much bothered by high levels of radiation.

[Chris Peterson]

We see more and more pictures of galaxies in turmoil. I'm clear that even in a galactic collision stars do not collide, but the gas and dust clouds do resulting in enormous particle and radiation fluxes. These occur within our own galaxy, on a lesser scale.
Do these events affect the possibility of life out there? The Drake equation does not include a specific factor for 'inhabitable, but too much radiation', which could mean that vast numbers of otherwise habitable planets are and remain sterile.

Even galaxies that are very active probably have habitable zones. So the Drake Equation still makes sense, we just make the number of habitable planets in an "average" galaxy smaller.

I don't think there are all that many very active galaxies, though. We are seeing more because there's a lot of interest in them, so they are the targets of a lot of research. The vast majority of "ordinary" galaxies are less interesting in many respects, and even where they are imaged, those images are less likely to show up on APOD then those showing spectacular collisions or massive activity. It's a form of selection bias.

[NoelC]

Do these events affect the possibility of life out there? The Drake equation does not include a specific factor for 'inhabitable, but too much radiation', which could mean that vast numbers of otherwise habitable planets are and remain sterile.

A good question.

Are these galactic effects so tenuous at the small scale as to be no more than background radiation to the locals?

Could there be life designs that can survive far more radiation and still keep on kicking? We have the example of cockroaches ourselves.

I've always been glad we're out here in a quiet part of our Galaxy. But Murphy says that a star like Betelgeuse is probably going to blow up soon and point a GRB at us, so live life to its fullest!

-Noel

[NoelC]

The Hubble is an amazing scope.

The "brilliant" star at the right in this image, the brightest one with all the diffraction flare, is magnitude 10.77 - which is quite dim indeed! That's what almost 4 magnitudes dimmer than the faintest star visible to the unaided eye under the darkest skies. Yet it practically overwhelms this image with its brilliance.

I can't help but notice that there are quite a few point light sources out there amongst those red clouds... They're clearly not just image noise. Are these actual red stars or clusters, and if so why are they red like the gas? Are they obscured by dust? Or are they knots of glowing gas?

-Noel

[bystander]

NASA IOTD: M82: Where Stars Are Born (2010 Dec 23)

Where Stars Are Born

Click to view full size image

Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA); Acknowledgment:
J. Gallagher (University of Wisconsin), M. Mountain (STScI), and P. Puxley (NSF)

This mosaic image is the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of the starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (M82). The galaxy is remarkable for its bright blue disk, webs of shredded clouds and fiery-looking plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out of its central regions.

Throughout the galaxy's center, young stars are being born 10 times faster than they are inside our entire Milky Way Galaxy, which results in a huge concentration of young stars carved into the gas and dust at the galaxy's center. The fierce galactic superwind generated from these stars compresses enough gas to make millions of more stars.

In M82, young stars are crammed into tiny but massive star clusters. These, in turn, congregate by the dozens to make the bright patches, or starburst clumps, in the central parts of M82. The clusters in the clumps can only be distinguished in the sharp Hubble images. Most of the pale, white objects sprinkled around the body of M82 that look like fuzzy stars are actually individual star clusters about 20 light-years across and contain up to a million stars.

The rapid rate of star formation in this galaxy eventually will be self-limiting. When star formation becomes too vigorous, it will consume or destroy the material needed to make more stars. The starburst then will subside, probably in a few tens of millions of years.

The observation was made in March 2006, with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys' Wide Field Channel. Astronomers assembled this six-image composite mosaic by combining exposures taken with four colored filters that capture starlight from visible and infrared wavelengths, as well as the light from the glowing hydrogen filaments.