APOD: M106 Across the Spectrum (2014 Jul 05)

[APOD Robot]

M106 Across the Spectrum

Explanation: The spiral arms of bright, active galaxy M106 sprawl through this remarkable multiwavelength portrait, composed of image data from radio to X-rays, across the electromagnetic spectrum. Also known as NGC 4258, M106 can be found toward the northern constellation Canes Venatici. The well-measured distance to M106 is 23.5 million light-years, making this cosmic scene about 60,000 light-years across. Typical in grand spiral galaxies, dark dust lanes, youthful star clusters, and star forming regions trace spiral arms that converge on a bright nucleus. But this composite highlights two anomalous arms in radio (purple) and X-ray (blue) that seem to arise in the central region of M106, evidence of energetic jets of material blasting into the galaxy's disk. The jets are likely powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole.

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[/b]

[geckzilla]

Times like this I wish all the telescopes had the same resolving power Hubble has (or better!). It's easy to get confused by the blurry appearance of the radio and x-ray data. Point sources become giant fuzzballs and of course all small details are also fuzzy. Those jets are every bit as detailed as the rest of the galaxy but we don't have the "eyes" to make them out clearly.

[HellCat]

Direct picture link gets a 404:

Not Found
The requested URL /apod/image/1407/m106_lg2048jpg was not found on this server.

[neufer]

Times like this I wish all the telescopes had the same resolving power Hubble has (or better!). It's easy to get confused by the blurry appearance of the radio and x-ray data. Point sources become giant fuzzballs and of course all small details are also fuzzy. Those jets are every bit as detailed as the rest of the galaxy but we don't have the "eyes" to make them out clearly.

• Hubble angular resolution: ~50 milliarcseconds

[b][color=#0000FF]Image of the source IRC+10420. The lower resolution image on the left image was taken with the UK's MERLIN array and shows the shell of maser emission produced by an expanding shell of gas with a diameter about 200 times that of our own Solar System. The shell of gas was ejected from a supergiant star (10 times the mass of our sun) at the centre of the emission about 900 years ago. The corresponding EVN e-VLBI image (right) shows the much finer structure of the masers because of the higher resolution of the VLBI array.[/color][/b]

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Code: Select all

European Very Long Baseline Array resolution

Wavelength        Angular resolution

   18.0 cm        5.0   milliarcseconds
    6.0 cm        1.5   milliarcseconds
    3.6 cm        1.0   milliarcseconds
    1.3 cm        0.3   milliarcseconds
    0.7 cm        0.15  milliarcseconds

<<The European VLBI Network (EVN) was formed in 1980 by a consortium of five of the major radio astronomy institutes in Europe (the European Consortium for VLBI). Since 1980, the EVN and the Consortium has grown to include 9 institutes with 12 radio telescopes in 8 western European countries as well as associated institutes with telescopes in Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, China and South Africa.>>

[Jypy]

Direct picture link gets a 404:

Not Found
The requested URL /apod/image/1407/m106_lg2048jpg was not found on this server.

Yes, because the dot before 'jpg' is missing, but you can see the picture if you add it back in the browser's address box.

[BMAONE23]

Times like this I wish all the telescopes had the same resolving power Hubble has (or better!). It's easy to get confused by the blurry appearance of the radio and x-ray data. Point sources become giant fuzzballs and of course all small details are also fuzzy. Those jets are every bit as detailed as the rest of the galaxy but we don't have the "eyes" to make them out clearly.

• Hubble angular resolution: ~50 milliarcseconds

[b][color=#0000FF]Image of the source IRC+10420. The lower resolution image on the left image was taken with the UK's MERLIN array and shows the shell of maser emission produced by an expanding shell of gas with a diameter about 200 times that of our own Solar System. The shell of gas was ejected from a supergiant star (10 times the mass of our sun) at the centre of the emission about 900 years ago. The corresponding EVN e-VLBI image (right) shows the much finer structure of the masers because of the higher resolution of the VLBI array.[/color][/b]

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Code: Select all

European Very Long Baseline Array resolution

Wavelength        Angular resolution

   18.0 cm        5.0   milliarcseconds
    6.0 cm        1.5   milliarcseconds
    3.6 cm        1.0   milliarcseconds
    1.3 cm        0.3   milliarcseconds
    0.7 cm        0.15  milliarcseconds

<<The European VLBI Network (EVN) was formed in 1980 by a consortium of five of the major radio astronomy institutes in Europe (the European Consortium for VLBI). Since 1980, the EVN and the Consortium has grown to include 9 institutes with 12 radio telescopes in 8 western European
countries as well as associated institutes with telescopes in Italy, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, China and
South Africa.>>

But it wouldn't fit in Geck's backyard

[LocalColor]

Wonderful image showing us more than our human eyes can see.

[geckzilla]

But it wouldn't fit in Geck's backyard

If I had a backyard big enough to fit a telescope array you wouldn't see me wasting away in front of this computer so much. Anyway, with Art's example you can see how big a difference resolution makes. The low resolution image can give the false impression that certain structures are very large and thick when it's more like a diffuse mist with knots here and there just like the rest of the galaxy.

[Chris Peterson]

If I had a backyard big enough to fit a telescope array you wouldn't see me wasting away in front of this computer so much.

Unless you actually wanted to use the telescope array, since the data from such arrays is only collectible and analyzable using your computer...

[Random]

Direct picture link gets a 404:

Not Found
The requested URL /apod/image/1407/m106_lg2048jpg was not found on this server.

There's a period missing from the link before the JPG at the end.

[geckzilla]

Unless you actually wanted to use the telescope array, since the data from such arrays is only collectible and analyzable using your computer...

I was assuming there wasn't an array occupying the backyard. If there was one and I knew how to use it, I have no idea what I would do! This hypothetical me must be swimming in money so I could possibly just hire some other astronomers to figure that out for me while I go outside.

[zbvhs]

How are the anomalous arms oriented? In the disk plane or normal to it?

[neufer]

How are the anomalous arms oriented? In the disk plane or normal to it?

Probably: normal to the central black hole equator/accretion disk.

[Boomer12k]

Very interesting, I would think, from other examples of CMBHs that the jets would be out the "TOP and Bottom" of all galaxies...evidently not so....these jets, or ejected energy, goes out into the galactic disk...and makes..."ARMS"....intriguing... is this CMBH...on its SIDE????????


:---[===] *

[Chris Peterson]

Very interesting, I would think, from other examples of CMBHs that the jets would be out the "TOP and Bottom" of all galaxies...evidently not so....these jets, or ejected energy, goes out into the galactic disk...and makes..."ARMS"....intriguing... is this CMBH...on its SIDE????????

SMBH? MCBH?

I can't think of any reason that a central BH has to be aligned with its rotation axis normal to the galactic plane. After all, the stars in the central bulge aren't orbiting along the galactic plane. Certainly, I can think of reasons associated with galaxy formation why central BH's might be more likely to have their rotation normal to the plane, but there are all sorts of opportunities for perturbation that could alter that over the evolution of a galaxy.

[stargene1]

Maaaaan... when Type IV civilizations celebrate their 4th of July, they really go all out!

[DavidLeodis]

In the explanation it states the image is "about 60,000 light-years across". In information about the image in the Chandra X-ray Center release (brought up through the "remarkable multiwavelength portrait link") it states the image "is about 6.6 arcmin across (about 44,000 light years)". I appreciate that such distances may not be exact but it does seem odd that there is the difference in the distances given that, as would seem likely, the explanation may have used information in the CXC release.

[NGC3314]

I can't think of any reason that a central BH has to be aligned with its rotation axis normal to the galactic plane.

In fact, the statistics of radio jets in Seyfert galaxies (mostly spirals,whose radio jets are seldom more than a few thousand light-years in length) are consistent with the axis of the active nucleus lying at random angles to the plane of the surrounding galaxies. It may be that the handful of spirals with giant radio jets are assisted by happening to have them emerge near the poles of the galaxy, so there is a minimum of interstellar gas to disrupt them along the way.

[starsurfer]

The two jets are also represented optically by Ha jets. One of the very few images to show them is this one by Jay GaBany.