Found Images: 2015 October

[bystander]

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Have you seen a great image or video somewhere that you think would make a great APOD? Nominate it for APOD! Please post as much information here as you have about the image/video with a link to any source(s) for it you know of here, and the editors will take a look.

When posting the image itself, please do not post anything larger than a thumbnail here; please honor the copyright holder's copyright.

Please keep hotlinked images under 400K.

Thank you!

[starsurfer]

Antlia Galaxy Cluster (Abell S0636)
http://www.rolfolsenastrophotography.co ... 3GJdqqH/X3
Copyright: Rolf Olsen

Click to view full size image

[starsurfer]

M33
http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im1260.html
Copyright: Local Group Survey Team and T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage)

[Ann]

Antlia Galaxy Cluster (Abell S0636)
http://www.rolfolsenastrophotography.co ... 3GJdqqH/X3
Copyright: Rolf Olsen

Click to view full size image

Wow! That's a brilliant image of the Antlia Cluster. Look at that red foreground (surely?) tendril of emission nebulosity. And the galaxies are interesting too. This isn't one of the relentlessly "red and dead" galaxy clusters.

Ann

[starsurfer]

Antlia Galaxy Cluster (Abell S0636)
http://www.rolfolsenastrophotography.co ... 3GJdqqH/X3
Copyright: Rolf Olsen

Click to view full size image

Wow! That's a brilliant image of the Antlia Cluster. Look at that red foreground (surely?) tendril of emission nebulosity. And the galaxies are interesting too. This isn't one of the relentlessly "red and dead" galaxy clusters.

Ann

It is rare to see images of this particular galaxy cluster but 152 hours exposure is a bit excessive. The red nebulosity is indeed in the foreground and is part of the Milky Way, it is a small part of the Antlia Supernova Remnant. The galaxies are also interesting and include some spirals in addition to the ellipticals. However the framing misses one of my favourites, NGC 3281. Also there is a detailed description available if you mouseover the bottom of the page.

[starsurfer]

Whirlpool Galaxy (M51)
http://www.imagingdeepsky.com/Galaxies/M51/M51.htm
Copyright: Ken Crawford

[starsurfer]

Helix Nebula (NGC 7293)
http://www.pbase.com/david_fitz_henry/image/154140519
Copyright: David Fitz-Henry

[starsurfer]

NGC 2547
http://www.astro-austral.cl/imagenes/st ... 7/info.htm
Copyright: José Joaquín Pérez

[bystander]

A Microlensing Mystery (NGC 6553)
ESO Picture of the Week | VISTA | 2015 Oct 05

[c][attachment=0]potw1540a[1].jpg[/attachment][/c]

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This spectacular starry field of view shows the globular cluster NGC 6553 which is located approximately 19 000 light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius. In this field, astronomers discovered a mysterious microlensing event.

Microlensing is a form of gravitational lensing in which the light from a background source is bent by the gravitational field of a foreground object, creating an amplified image of the background object. The object causing the microlensing in NGC 6553 bent the light of a red giant star in the background (marked with an arrow). If this object lies in the cluster — something the scientists believe might only have a 50/50 chance of being correct — the object could be a black hole with a mass twice that of the Sun, making it the first of its kind to be discovered in a globular cluster. It would also be the oldest known stellar-mass black hole ever discovered. However, further observations are needed to determine the true nature of this lensing object for sure.

This cosmological curiosity was detected by ESO's VISTA telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile as part of the VISTA Variables in the Vıa Lactea Survey (VVV) — a near-infrared survey aimed at scanning the central parts of the Milky Way.

[bystander]

Waving Goodbye (PK 329-02.2)
ESA Hubble Picture of the Week | 2015 Oct 05

[img3="Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement: Serge Meunier"]http://cdn.spacetelescope.org/archives/ ... w1540a.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]

This planetary nebula is called PK 329-02.2 and is located in the constellation of Norma in the southern sky. It is also sometimes referred to as Menzel 2, or Mz 2, named after the astronomer Donald Menzel who discovered the nebula in 1922.

When stars that are around the mass of the Sun reach their final stages of life, they shed their outer layers into space, which appear as glowing clouds of gas called planetary nebulae. The ejection of mass in stellar burnout is irregular and not symmetrical, so that planetary nebulae can have very complex shapes. In the case of Menzel 2 the nebula forms a winding blue cloud that perfectly aligns with two stars at its centre. In 1999 astronomers discovered that the star at the upper right is in fact the central star of the nebula, and the star to the lower left is probably a true physical companion of the central star.

For tens of thousands of years the stellar core will be cocooned in spectacular clouds of gas and then, over a period of a few thousand years, the gas will fade away into the depths of the Universe. The curving structure of Menzel 2 resembles a last goodbye before the star reaches its final stage of retirement as a white dwarf.

A version of this image was entered into the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Serge Meunier.

[starsurfer]

NGC 3521
http://www.martinpughastrophotography.id.au
Copyright: Martin Pugh

[starsurfer]

NGC 1333 and IC 348
http://www.caelumobservatory.com/galler ... abtp.shtml
Copyright: Adam Block and Tim Puckett

The large pink nebula is Ced 18a.

[starsurfer]

vdB27
http://www.astroimager.net/Page-RHA-CCD-352.html
Copyright: Jim Janusz

vdB27 is the reflection nebula on the right and is also known as LBN 785. The reflection nebula on the left is Ced 30. Also somewhere in this image is a galaxy!

[starsurfer]

M78
http://www.josebellas.com/astroblog/201 ... bservatory
Copyright: Jose Bellas

[starsurfer]

NGC 4435-8
http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1131a/
Copyright: ESO

Click to view full size image

[starsurfer]

NGC 6559 and IC 1274-5
http://astrophotography.aa6g.org/Astrop ... f8300.html
Copyright: Chuck Vaughn

[starsurfer]

NGC 678 and NGC 680
http://bf-astro.com/arp31/arp31.htm
Copyright: Bob Franke

NGC 680 is a shell elliptical galaxy. The blue spiral galaxy Arp 31 is also known as IC 167.

[bystander]

Outbursts from a Newborn Star (HH 212)
ESO Picture of the Week | 2015 Oct 12

[b][i]Credit: ESO/M.McCaughrean[/i][/b]

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A pair of jets protrude outwards in near-perfect symmetry in this image of Herbig-Haro object (HH) 212, taken by ESO’s already decommissioned Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera (ISAAC).

The object lies in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter) in a dense molecular star-forming region, not far from the famous Horsehead Nebula. In regions like this, clouds of dust and gas collapse under the force of gravity, spinning faster and faster and becoming hotter and hotter until a young star ignites at the cloud’s centre. Any leftover material swirling around the newborn protostar comes together to form an accretion disc that will, under the right circumstances, eventually evolve to form the base material for the creation of planets, asteroids and comets.

Although this process is still not fully understood, it is common that a protostar and its accretion disc, as seen here edge-on, are the cause of the jets in this image. The star at the centre of HH 212 is indeed a very young star, at only a few thousand years old. Its jets are remarkably symmetric, with several knots appearing at relatively stable intervals. This stability suggests that the jet pulses vary quite regularly, and over a short timescale — maybe even as short as 30 years! Further out from the centre, large bow shocks spread out into interstellar space, caused by ejected gas colliding with dust and gas at speeds of several hundred kilometres per second.

[bystander]

Elegant Spiral Hides a Hungry Monster (NGC 4639)
ESA Hubble Picture of the Week | 2015 Oct 12

[b][i]Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA[/i][/b]

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NGC 4639 is a beautiful example of a type of galaxy known as a barred spiral. It lies over 70 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo and is one of about 1500 galaxies that make up the Virgo Cluster.

In this image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, one can clearly see the bar running through the bright, round core of the galaxy. Bars are found in around two thirds of spiral galaxies, and are thought to be a natural phase in their evolution.

The galaxy’s spiral arms are sprinkled with bright regions of active star formation. Each of these tiny jewels is actually several hundred light-years across and contains hundreds or thousands of newly formed stars. But NGC 4639 also conceals a dark secret in its core — a massive black hole that is consuming the surrounding gas.

This is known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), and is revealed by characteristic features in the spectrum of light from the galaxy and by X-rays produced close to the black hole as the hot gas plunges towards it.

Most galaxies are thought to contain a black hole at the centre. NGC 4639 is in fact a very weak example of an AGN, demonstrating that AGNs exist over a large range of activity, from galaxies like NGC 4639 to distant quasars, where the parent galaxy is almost completely dominated by the emissions from the AGN.

[geckzilla]

Outbursts from a Newborn Star (HH 212)
ESO Picture of the Week | 2015 Oct 12

[b][i]Credit: ESO/M.McCaughrean[/i][/b]

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A pair of jets protrude outwards in near-perfect symmetry in this image of Herbig-Haro object (HH) 212, taken by ESO’s already decommissioned Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera (ISAAC).

The object lies in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter) in a dense molecular star-forming region, not far from the famous Horsehead Nebula. In regions like this, clouds of dust and gas collapse under the force of gravity, spinning faster and faster and becoming hotter and hotter until a young star ignites at the cloud’s centre. Any leftover material swirling around the newborn protostar comes together to form an accretion disc that will, under the right circumstances, eventually evolve to form the base material for the creation of planets, asteroids and comets.

Although this process is still not fully understood, it is common that a protostar and its accretion disc, as seen here edge-on, are the cause of the jets in this image. The star at the centre of HH 212 is indeed a very young star, at only a few thousand years old. Its jets are remarkably symmetric, with several knots appearing at relatively stable intervals. This stability suggests that the jet pulses vary quite regularly, and over a short timescale — maybe even as short as 30 years! Further out from the centre, large bow shocks spread out into interstellar space, caused by ejected gas colliding with dust and gas at speeds of several hundred kilometres per second.

What a great portrait of a Herbig Haro object!

[starsurfer]

Outbursts from a Newborn Star (HH 212)
ESO Picture of the Week | 2015 Oct 12

[b][i]Credit: ESO/M.McCaughrean[/i][/b]

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A pair of jets protrude outwards in near-perfect symmetry in this image of Herbig-Haro object (HH) 212, taken by ESO’s already decommissioned Infrared Spectrometer And Array Camera (ISAAC).

The object lies in the constellation of Orion (The Hunter) in a dense molecular star-forming region, not far from the famous Horsehead Nebula. In regions like this, clouds of dust and gas collapse under the force of gravity, spinning faster and faster and becoming hotter and hotter until a young star ignites at the cloud’s centre. Any leftover material swirling around the newborn protostar comes together to form an accretion disc that will, under the right circumstances, eventually evolve to form the base material for the creation of planets, asteroids and comets.

Although this process is still not fully understood, it is common that a protostar and its accretion disc, as seen here edge-on, are the cause of the jets in this image. The star at the centre of HH 212 is indeed a very young star, at only a few thousand years old. Its jets are remarkably symmetric, with several knots appearing at relatively stable intervals. This stability suggests that the jet pulses vary quite regularly, and over a short timescale — maybe even as short as 30 years! Further out from the centre, large bow shocks spread out into interstellar space, caused by ejected gas colliding with dust and gas at speeds of several hundred kilometres per second.

What a great portrait of a Herbig Haro object!

I wholeheartedly agree with you! Herbig Haro objects are some of my favourite deep sky objects. What's interesting about this one is that it is practically invisible in the optical but much brighter and detailed in the infrared.

[starsurfer]

Rosette Nebula (NGC 2237-9)
http://www.astrosurf.com/ilizaso/orriak ... Q_U16m.htm
Copyright: Iñaki Lizaso

[starsurfer]

LDN 673
http://www.alessandrofalesiedi.it/deep-sky/ldn673/
Copyright: Alessandro Falesiedi

[bystander]

A Cosmic Sackful of Black Coal
ESO Photo Release | 2015 Oct 14

[c][attachment=0]eso1539a[1].jpg[/attachment][/b][/c][hr][/hr]

Dark smudges almost block out a rich star field in this new image captured by the Wide Field Imager camera, installed on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile. The inky areas are small parts of a huge dark nebula known as the Coalsack, one of the most prominent objects of its kind visible to the unaided eye. Millions of years from now, chunks of the Coalsack will ignite, rather like its fossil fuel namesake, with the glow of many young stars.

The Coalsack Nebula is located about 600 light-years away in the constellation of Crux (The Southern Cross). This huge, dusky object forms a conspicuous silhouette against the bright, starry band of the Milky Way and for this reason the nebula has been known to people in the southern hemisphere for as long as our species has existed.

The Spanish explorer Vicente Yáñez Pinzón first reported the existence of the Coalsack Nebula to Europe in 1499. The Coalsack later garnered the nickname of the Black Magellanic Cloud, a play on its dark appearance compared to the bright glow of the two Magellanic Clouds, which are in fact satellite galaxies of the Milky Way. These two bright galaxies are clearly visible in the southern sky and came to the attention of Europeans during Ferdinand Magellan’s explorations in the 16th century. However, the Coalsack is not a galaxy. Like other dark nebulae, it is actually an interstellar cloud of dust so thick that it prevents most of the background starlight from reaching observers. ...

[starsurfer]

M92
http://www.astrobin.com/177543/
Copyright: Tero Turunen