Found images: 2014 September

[starsurfer]

ALMA Achieves New Short Wavelength Observing Capabilities
European Southern Observatory | ALMA | 2014 Sep 10

[url=http://www.eso.org/public/images/ann14065b/][b][i]ALMA short wavelength image of Uranus[/i][/b][/url] [b][i]Image Credit: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)[/i][/b]

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The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) has reached a major milestone by extending its vision fully into the realm of the submillimetre, the wavelengths of cosmic light that hold intriguing information about the cold, dark, and distant Universe.

This achievement opens an entirely new window on the Universe for ALMA beyond its existing capabilities with the Band 9 receivers. It also is a critical step in the telescope's commissioning process, which brings its full capabilities to bear and makes them available to the international astronomical community.

As a demonstration of its new capabilities, the commissioning team released a new image of planet Uranus as it appears in submillimetre wavelength light. The image — obtained with ALMA's shortest wavelength, Band 10 receivers — reveals the icy glow from the planet's atmosphere, which can reach temperatures as low as -224 C (giving Uranus the coldest atmosphere in the Solar System). ALMA's now broader range of capabilities will enable astronomers and planetary scientists to study and monitor temperature changes at different altitudes above the clouds of Uranus and other giant planets in our Solar System. ...

Submillimetre images of dust clouds would show cold dust, I think?

[starsurfer]

Rho Ophiuchi Nebula (IC 4604) region
http://www.astrostudio.at/1_Deep%20Sky% ... e9e3a5f172
Copyright: Gerald Rhemann

http://www.astrostudio.at/1_Deep%20Sky% ... detail.jpg

[starsurfer]

Sh2-88
http://www.weatherandsky.com/all_astrop ... #h1e303750
Copyright: Kerry-Ann Lecky Hepburn

[Sandgirl]

Cosmic Rose
Copyrights: Nicolas Raymond
Suggested by Tomi Schebywolok
Larger version: http://somadjinn.deviantart.com/art/Cos ... -481306893

[russelleking]

"Big Brother"
The Moon and Pleiades.
Date: September 12, 2014.
Time: 10:29 PM.
Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XSi.
Lens: 17-55mm.
Tripod: Fixed Camera.
Focal Length: 55mm.
Exposure: 10 Seconds.
ISO: 800.
Sharpened in Ulead.
http://www.rddnj.com
http://rddnj.com/RussellsMoonandPleiades9122014.html
Copyright: Russell E. King

Click to view full size image

[starsurfer]

NGC 7252
https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/12527192305/
Copyright: Hubble Legacy Archive/NASA/ESA
Processing: Judy Schmidt

Click to view full size image

This peculiar galaxy is also catalogued as Arp 226. It seems to consist of a spiral core surrounded by multiple tidal shells. It also has many tidal tails and loops that aren't included in the narrow HST field of view. These also give it the popular name of Atoms for Peace Galaxy. Recently, an OIII ionization echo was discovered near its core: http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.2233

[Ann]

NGC 7252
https://www.flickr.com/photos/geckzilla/12527192305/
Copyright: Hubble Legacy Archive/NASA/ESA
Processing: Judy Schmidt

Click to view full size image

This peculiar galaxy is also catalogued as Arp 226. It seems to consist of a spiral core surrounded by multiple tidal shells. It also has many tidal tails and loops that aren't included in the narrow HST field of view. These also give it the popular name of Atoms for Peace Galaxy. Recently, an OIII ionization echo was discovered near its core: http://arxiv.org/abs/1307.2233

What a fine and fascinating image, Geck!

I have been wondering about this particular galaxy, for two reasons: it is such an obvious product of a merger, which is always interesting, but it seems to lack star formation altogether. Weird. But your image shows what clearly looks like star formation in a spiral pattern near the core, and there is also a "jet" in the right-hand part of the picture that seems to produce young stars. The otherwise "dead" galaxy with star formation near the core is similar to NGC 4314.)

The link to the Arxiv article was also interesting. There is an OIII "echo" of past AGN activity in the core of NGC 7252, similar to (but much fainter than) Hanny's Voorwerp.

I can't help wondering if the bluish light in the spiral pattern is also at least partly an echo of high-energy activity near the core of the "Atoms for Peace".

In any case, what a great picture!

Ann

[starsurfer]

M85
http://afesan.es/Deepspace/slides/M85%2 ... es%29.html
Copyright: Antonio Sánchez

NGC 4394 is the spiral galaxy to the left of this shell elliptical galaxy.

[bystander]

ESO: Morning Light Over La Silla

[b][i]ESO/J. Pérez[/i][/b]

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Here we see ESO's La Silla Observatory with a backdrop of the Milky Way. Established in the 1960s, La Silla was ESO's first observatory to be built in Chile.

Visible on the hill in the centre of this image is the rectangular New Technology Telescope (NTT) on the left, and the domed ESO 3.6-metre telescope to the right. The 3.58-metre NTT was inaugurated in 1989, and was the first in the world to have a computer-controlled main mirror. The main mirror is flexible, and its shape is actively adjusted during observations to preserve the optimal image quality. This technology, known as active optics, is now applied to all major modern telescopes — including the Very Large Telescope at Cerro Paranal, and the future European Extremely Large Telescope.

La Silla is home to several other telescopes, including the Swedish–ESO Submillimetre Telescope (SEST), and the robotic TAROT, which is used to monitor rapidly occurring events such as gamma-ray bursts.

This picture was taken by ESO Photo Ambassador José Joaquín Pérez. When José is not taking stunning photos of the night sky, he works as an agricultural engineer where he devotes his time to the protection of crops in central Chile.

[bystander]

ESA/HEIC: An Interacting Colossus (NGC 6872, IC 4970)

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (geckzilla.com)

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This picture, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2), shows a galaxy known as NGC 6872 in the constellation of Pavo (The Peacock). Its unusual shape is caused by its interactions with the smaller galaxy that can be seen just above NGC 6872, called IC 4970. They both lie roughly 300 million light-years away from Earth.

From tip to tip, NGC 6872 measures over 500 000 light-years across, making it the second largest spiral galaxy discovered to date. In terms of size it is beaten only by NGC 262, a galaxy that measures a mind-boggling 1.3 million light-years in diameter! To put that into perspective, our own galaxy, the Milky Way, measures between 100 000 and 120 000 light-years across, making NGC 6872 about five times its size.

The upper left spiral arm of NGC 6872 is visibly distorted and is populated by star-forming regions, which appear blue on this image. This may have been be caused by IC 4970 recently passing through this arm — although here, recent means 130 million years ago! Astronomers have noted that NGC 6872 seems to be relatively sparse in terms of free hydrogen, which is the basis material for new stars, meaning that if it weren’t for its interactions with IC 4970, NGC 6872 might not have been able to produce new bursts of star formation.

[starsurfer]

N70
http://members.pcug.org.au/~stevec/n70_STL6303_RC.htm
Copyright: Steve Crouch

N70 is one of many superbubbles found in the LMC. A few scientific papers about it have been published this year:
http://arxiv.org/abs/1407.6718
http://arxiv.org/abs/1404.3823

[starsurfer]

NGC 2633-4
http://bf-astro.com/ngc2634/ngc2634.htm
Copyright: Bob Franke

NGC 2633 is the spiral galaxy and NGC 2634 is the shell elliptical below it.

[starsurfer]

Sh2-129
https://www.flickr.com/photos/neutronman/11256154895/
Copyright: John Davis

[starsurfer]

Draco Trio
http://www.jeffreyjongmans.nl/photo.php?id=53
Copyright: Jeffrey Jongmans

The edge on galaxy at right is NGC 5981 and the spiral galaxy at left is NGC 5985. In the middle is the shell elliptical galaxy NGC 5982.

[abhagwat]

I would like to submit a photo of a sun-bow.

We all have seen rainbow, moon-bow and glory, but a sun-bow? This photo (credit: Saee Nair) was taken in Melbourne in July 2014 on a cold winter morning when Saee went for a walk, it lasted only about 30 seconds or so.

Kindly let me know if it is suitable for an APOD display...........that would be nice indeed!

Thank you, and with warm regards,
Anuradha Bhagwat

[starsurfer]

G70.5+1.9
http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im1251.html
Copyright: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF)

[starsurfer]

vdB123
http://www.caelumobservatory.com/gallery/vdb123.shtml
Copyright: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona

[bystander]

ESO: Dizzying Star Trails over SEST

[b][i]Credit: ESO/José Joaquín Pérez[/i][/b]

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The 15-metre diameter Swedish–ESO Submillimetre Telescope (SEST) was built in 1987, and was operated at ESO's La Silla Observatory in Chile until it was decommissioned in 2003.

At the time of construction, SEST was the only radio telescope in the southern hemisphere that was designed to observe the submillimetre Universe, and it paved the way for later telescopes such as the Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope (APEX), and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), both located at Chajnantor.

In this image, we see a crowded night sky filled with star trails, a result of the camera's long exposure time. The starlight is reflected back at numerous different angles towards the camera from the giant parabolic dish. In the background, the ESO 3.6-metre telescope stands in its dome, silently surveying the cosmos.

[bystander]

ESA/HEIC: Jets and Explosions in NGC 7793

[b][i]Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: D. Calzetti (UMass) and the LEGUS Team[/i][/b]

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This new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows NGC 7793, a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Sculptor some 13 million light-years away from Earth. NGC 7793 is one of the brightest galaxies in the Sculptor Group, and one of the closest groups of galaxies to the Local Group — the group of galaxies containing our galaxy, the Milky Way and the Magellanic Clouds.

The image shows NGC 7793’s spiral arms and small central bulge. Unlike some other spirals, NGC 7793 doesn’t have a very pronounced spiral structure, and its shape is further muddled by the mottled pattern of dark dust that stretches across the frame. The occasional burst of bright pink can be seen in the galaxy, highlighting stellar nurseries containing newly-forming baby stars.

Although it may look serene and beautiful from our perspective, this galaxy is actually a very dramatic and violent place. Astronomers have discovered a powerful microquasar within NGC 7793 — a system containing a black hole actively feeding on material from a companion star. While many full-sized quasars are known at the cores of other galaxies, it is unusual to find a quasar in a galaxy’s disc rather than at its centre.

Micro-quasars are almost like scale models — they allow astronomers to study quasars in detail. As material falls inwards towards this black hole, it creates a swirling disc around it. Some of the infalling gas is propelled violently outwards at extremely high speeds, creating jets streaking out into space in opposite directions. In the case of NGC 7793, these jets are incredibly powerful, and are in the process of creating an expanding bubble of hot gas some 1000 light-years across.

[starsurfer]

Helix Nebula (NGC 7293)
http://www.capella-observatory.com/Imag ... ixDeep.htm
Copyright: Makis Palaiologou, Josef Pöpsel and Stefan Binnewies

Click to view full size image

[starsurfer]

NGC 1549, NGC 1553 and NGC 1566
http://www.glitteringlights.com/Images/ ... BcwwZDR/X3
Copyright: Marco Lorenzi

Click to view full size image

NGC 1549 is the more northern of the interacting pair of elliptical galaxies with NGC 1553 below it. NGC 1566 is the blue spiral galaxy. The galaxy below and to the right of the elliptical galaxies is NGC 1546 and the edge on galaxy below and to the left of the elliptical galaxies is IC 2058.

[starsurfer]

Ghost of Jupiter Nebula (NGC 3242)
http://www.astrodonimaging.com/gallery/ ... ?imgID=266
Copyright: Don Goldman

Click to view full size image

[starsurfer]

NGC 1961
http://sleshin.startlogic.com/stargazer ... itemId=728
Copyright: Stephen Leshin

This peculiar galaxy is also known as Arp 184. The edge on galaxy below and to the left is UGC 3342 and the spiral galaxy at the bottom is UGC 3344.

[Sandgirl]

CRS-4 LAUNCH
Credits: Spacex

[starsurfer]

Antennae (NGC 4038-9)
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1345a/
Copyright: ESA/Hubble & NASA

This is the most detailed image of the Antennae! It includes previous ACS data and newer data taken with the WFC3.