Found images: 2016 May

[Sandgirl]

Falcon 9 starry night
Credits: SpaceX
Suggested by: Ben Cooper
Larger size: https://www.flickr.com/photos/spacex/26 ... ateposted/

[starsurfer]

NGC 1140
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1529a/
Copyright: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Click to view full size image

[starsurfer]

TGU H774 P19 and vdB2
http://afesan.es/Deepspace/slides/TGU%2 ... ia%29.html
Copyright: Antonio Sánchez

The small emission nebula to the right of TGU H774 P19 is catalogued as Teutsch GN J0016.8+6546.

[starsurfer]

ESO 40-11
http://members.pcug.org.au/~stevec/ESO4 ... 3_RC14.htm
Copyright: Steve Crouch

[Ann]

NGC 1140
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1529a/
Copyright: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Click to view full size image

Fascinating! NGC 1140 is blue indeed. Its B-V index is 0.350, and its U-B index is -0.430. That is blue indeed!

I'd expect such a blue galaxy to be very small, but it doesn't appear to be that incredibly tiny. According to Principal Galaxy Catalog, its luminosity is about 6 billion Suns, or 0.3 times the luminosity of the Milky Way. That is not so bad, actually.

I have to say something about NGC 4151, too. I just checked out its colors, and I was actually amazed. NGC 4151 is classified as a SBab galaxy, a barred spiral galaxy midway between classes Sa and Sb. You'd expect such a galaxy to have a relatively large, bright yellow bulge and faint spiral arms. In other words, you'd expect this galaxy to be quite red in color. But lo and behold, it isn't red at all - it is quite blue, in fact! Okay, its B-V index is 0.730, which is sort of unremarkable, although not red. But its U-B index is -0.170!!! Wow!!!

How did NGC 4151 get so ultraviolet? I guess there is only one answer. NGC 4151 is an active galaxy with an active core. The core of NGC 4151 must be very ultraviolet, because the rest of the galaxy clearly is not. Can we be sure that NGC 4151 doesn't have an M87-like jet? Oh well, I guess it doesn't, because such a jet should surely have been discovered by now. But as for brilliant ultraviolet sources in or near the core of NGC 4151 - yes, you can bet this galaxy has them!

Ann

[Ann]

Busy Bees

NGC 5308.
ESA/Hubble & NASA. Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt.

ESA/Hubble &NASA Press Release wrote:

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows star clusters encircling a galaxy, like bees buzzing around a hive. The hive in question is the edge-on lenticular galaxy NGC 5308, located just under 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear).

Members of a galaxy type that lies somewhere between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy, lenticular galaxies such as NGC 5308 are disc galaxies that have used up, or lost, the majority of their gas and dust. As a result, they experience very little ongoing star formation and consist mainly of old and aging stars. On 9 October 1996, one of NGC 5308’s aging stars met a dramatic demise, exploding as a spectacular Type la supernova...

Full size: http://astronomynow.com/wp-content/uplo ... 0x2000.jpg

Ann

[bystander]

Busy Bees

Busy Bees (NGC 5308)
ESA Hubble Picture of the Week | 2016 May 16

[img3="Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt"]http://cdn.spacetelescope.org/archives/ ... w1620a.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows star clusters encircling a galaxy, like bees buzzing around a hive. The hive in question the an edge-on lenticular galaxy NGC 5308, located just under 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear).

Members of a galaxy type that lies somewhere between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy, lenticular galaxies such as NGC 5308 are disc galaxies that have used up, or lost, the majority of their gas and dust. As a result, they experience very little ongoing star formation and consist mainly of old and aging stars. On 9 October 1996, one of NGC 5308’s aging stars met a dramatic demise, exploding as a spectacular Type la supernova.

Lenticular galaxies are often orbited by gravitationally bound collections of hundreds of thousands of older stars. Called globular clusters, these dense collections of stars form a delicate halo as they orbit around the main body of NGC 5308, appearing as bright dots on the dark sky.

The dim, irregular galaxy to the right of NGC 5308 is known, rather prosaically, as SDSS J134646.18+605911.9

[starsurfer]

NGC 6726-7
http://www.astro-austral.cl/imagenes/ne ... 2/info.htm
Copyright: José Joaquín Pérez

[starsurfer]

M65 and M66
http://www.martinpughastrophotography.id.au
Copyright: Martin Pugh

[starsurfer]

NGC 6340
http://www.caelumobservatory.com/gallery/n6340.shtml
Copyright: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona

[Ann]

NGC 3432

Click to view full size image

Full size and a caption is here.

Nice work, Geck!

Ann

[starsurfer]

Sh2-140
http://www.pbase.com/dsnope/image/157557403
Copyright: Dave Snope

[starsurfer]

NGC 4945
https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso0931/
Copyright: ESO

Click to view full size image

[starsurfer]

vdB38 and Sh2-263
http://www.astroimager.net/Page-RHA-CCD-381.html
Copyright: Jim Janusz

[Deep-Sky-Astroteam]

NGC4236

https://www.deep-sky-astroteam.de/sites ... nish_0.jpg
FullRes/Data

NGC 4631 Whale-Galaxy & NGC 4656 Hockey Stick- Galaxy

https://www.deep-sky-astroteam.de/sites ... Finish.jpg
FullRes/Data

M81-M82

https://www.deep-sky-astroteam.de/sites ... k=lbDyPBAb
FullRes/Data


Recording / preprocessing: by Frank Iwaszkiewicz
Image processing: by Nico Geisler & Frank Iwaszkiewicz


Best Regards Deep-Sky-Astro Team

[Bi2L]

Full Moon of May above San Marco Fortress

Almost apogee Full Moon with distance at 400500km away is "touching" the mountain hill Mesovouni* of Thesprotia just 50km way. And just under it is the San Marco's Fortress a Unesco World Heritage, only 5.4km away, build by the Venetians in 16th century.

Canon eos 700, SW ED80, 600mm, f/7.5, iso800, 1.3sec

[bystander]

New Insights into Debris Discs (HD 181327)
ESO Picture of the Week | ALMA | 2016 May 23

[img3="Credit: ESO/Marino et al."]https://cdn.eso.org/images/screen/potw1621a.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]

Using 39 of the 66 antennas of the Atacama Large Millimeter / submillimeter Array (ALMA), located 5000 metres up on the Chajnantor plateau in the Chilean Andes, astronomers have been able to detect carbon monoxide (CO) in the disc of debris around an F-type star. Although carbon monoxide is the second most common molecule in the interstellar medium, after molecular hydrogen, this is the first time that CO has been detected around a star of this type. The star, named HD 181327, is a member of the Beta Pictoris moving group, located almost 170 light-years from Earth.

Until now, the presence of CO has been detected only around a few A-type stars, substantially more massive and luminous than HD 181327. Using the superb spatial resolution and sensitivity offered by the ALMA observatory astronomers were now able to capture this stunning ring of smoke and map the density of the CO within the disc.

The study of debris discs is one way to characterise planetary systems and the results of planet formation. The CO gas is found to be co-located with the dust grains in the ring of debris and to have been produced recently. Destructive collisions of icy planetesimals in the disc are possible sources for the continuous replenishment of the CO gas. Collisions in debris discs typically require the icy bodies to be gravitationally perturbed by larger objects in order to reach sufficient collisional velocities. Moreover, the derived CO composition of the icy planetesimals in the disc is consistent with the comets in our Solar System. This possible secondary origin for the CO gas suggests that icy comets could be common around stars similar to our Sun which has strong implications for life suitability in terrestrial exoplanets. ...

Exocometary Gas in the HD 181327 Debris Ring - S. Marino et al

• arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1605.05331 > 17 May 2016

[bystander]

A Galactic Gathering (MACS J1149.5+2223)
ESA Hubble Picture of the Week | 2016 May 23

[img3="Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt"]http://cdn.spacetelescope.org/archives/ ... w1621a.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]

Nearly as deep as the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, which contains approximately 10 000 galaxies, this incredible image from the NASA/ESA Space Telescope reveals thousands of colourful galaxies in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). This vibrant view of the early Universe was captured as part of the Frontier Fields campaign, which aims to investigate galaxy clusters in more detail than ever before, and to explore some of the most distant galaxies in the Universe.

Galaxy clusters are massive. They can have a tremendous impact on their surroundings, with their immense gravity warping and amplifying the light from more distant objects. This phenomenon, known as gravitational lensing, can help astronomers to see galaxies that would otherwise be too faint, aiding our hunt for residents of the primordial Universe.

MACS J1149.5+2223 is a galaxy cluster located approximately five billion light-years away. In 2012, it helped astronomers uncover one of the most distant galaxies ever discovered. Light from the young galaxy, magnified 15 times by the galaxy cluster, first shone when our 13.7-billion-year-old Universe was a mere 500 million years old — just 3.6 per cent of its current age! ...

[starsurfer]

Sh2-150 and vdB154
http://astrophotography.aa6g.org/Astrop ... 0_ssp.html
Copyright: Chuck Vaughn

[starsurfer]

Abell 2256
http://bf-astro.com/abell-2256/abell-2256.htm
Copyright: Bob Franke

[Deep-Sky-Astroteam]

Messier 81 / 82


FullRes/Data

NGC 4631 Whale-Galaxy & NGC 4656 Hockey Stick- Galaxy


FullRes/Data

NGC 4236


FullRes/Data


Recording / preprocessing: by Frank Iwaszkiewicz
Image processing: by Nico Geisler & Frank Iwaszkiewicz


Best Regards Deep-Sky-Astro Team

[starsurfer]

Markarian's Chain
http://www.astrosurf.com/ilizaso/orriak ... Q_U16m.htm
Copyright: Iñaki Lizaso

[starsurfer]

NGC 3628
http://www.alessandrofalesiedi.it/deep- ... -ugc-6350/
Copyright: Alessandro Falesiedi

[bystander]

New Stamps Honoring NASA Planetary Discoveries Debut May 31
NASA | 2016 May 24

Click to view full size image

With this pane of 16 Forever stamps, the Postal Service showcases some of the more visually compelling historic, full-disk images of the planets obtained during the last half-century of NASA space exploration. Eight new colorful Forever stamps – each shown twice – feature Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Click for full resolution. Credits: USPS/Antonio Alcalá © 2016 USPS

Click to view full size image

The souvenir sheet of four New Horizons stamps features two new stamps appearing twice. The first stamp is an artist’s rendering of NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft based on artwork created by APL’s Steve Gribben, while the second stamp shows an enhanced color image of Pluto taken by New Horizons near its closest approach to Pluto. Click for full resolution. Credits: USPS/Antonio Alcalá © 2016 USPS

UA Planetary Science Gets Stamps of Approval
University of Arizona | 2016 May 26

[starsurfer]

M47
https://www.flickr.com/photos/dcrowson/24424638885/
Copyright: Dan Crowson

Click to view full size image