Found Images: 2020 January

[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!

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[starsurfer]

NGC 40
https://www.hansonastronomy.com/ngc-40cta1
Copyright: Mark Hanson

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HDW 2
https://www.britastro.org/node/19401
Copyright: Peter Goodhew

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Dr 27
https://www.astrobin.com/nhpjeu/B/
Copyright: Mario Zauner

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NGC 3447
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1712a/
Copyright: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Click to view full size image

[bystander]

Ripples and Shells
ESO Picture of the Week | 2020 Jan 06

Image Credit: ESO

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Compared to their more intricate spiral cousins, elliptical galaxies resemble soft, hazy clouds. These galaxies have smooth, undefined boundaries, and bright cores surrounded by a fuzzy, diffuse glow. However, looks can be deceiving. At least 10% of ellipticals extend much further out into the cosmos than you might expect, and possess a range of far finer structures than first meets the eye — features such as loops and shells.

Located around 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Pisces (The Fish), the galaxy to the upper-left of this image is named NGC 474. It is a stunning example of a shell elliptical galaxy; enormous wispy tails flick around the galaxy’s main body, while the inner structure is formed of a series of nested concentric rings. In fact, the full extent of the galaxy cannot even be contained in this field of view. The tendril-like outer regions of NGC 474 billow and wisp away like smoke, extending outwards for large distances from the galaxy’s main bulk.

Astronomers are unsure why some galaxies take on this kind of appearance and structure, but they believe it concerns gravity — namely, how nearby galaxies gravitationally interact with one another. It is possible that the spiral galaxy to the lower-right, NGC 470, has been tugging on its larger friend for billions of years, causing density waves to reshape its structure. ...

[bystander]

Imposter or the Real Deal?
ESA Hubble Picture of the Week | 2020 Jan 06

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko

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This Picture of the Week, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a close-up view of a galaxy named NGC 2770. NGC 2770 is intriguing, as over time it has hosted four different observed supernovae (not visible here).

Supernovae form in a few different ways, but always involve a dying star. These stars become unbalanced, lose control, and explode violently, briefly shining as brightly as an entire galaxy before slowly fading away.

One of the four supernovae observed within this galaxy, SN 2015bh, is especially interesting. This particular supernova initially had its identity called into question. When it was first discovered in 2015, astronomers classified SN 2015bh as a supernova imposter, believing it to be not an exploding star but simply an unpredictable outburst from a massive star in its final phase of life. Thankfully, astronomers eventually discovered the truth and the object was given its correct classification as a Type II supernova, resulting from the death of a star between eight and 50 times the mass of the Sun.

[Ann]

Ripples and Shells
ESO Picture of the Week | 2020 Jan 06

Image Credit: ESO

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Compared to their more intricate spiral cousins, elliptical galaxies resemble soft, hazy clouds. These galaxies have smooth, undefined boundaries, and bright cores surrounded by a fuzzy, diffuse glow. However, looks can be deceiving. At least 10% of ellipticals extend much further out into the cosmos than you might expect, and possess a range of far finer structures than first meets the eye — features such as loops and shells.

Located around 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Pisces (The Fish), the galaxy to the upper-left of this image is named NGC 474. It is a stunning example of a shell elliptical galaxy; enormous wispy tails flick around the galaxy’s main body, while the inner structure is formed of a series of nested concentric rings. In fact, the full extent of the galaxy cannot even be contained in this field of view. The tendril-like outer regions of NGC 474 billow and wisp away like smoke, extending outwards for large distances from the galaxy’s main bulk.

Astronomers are unsure why some galaxies take on this kind of appearance and structure, but they believe it concerns gravity — namely, how nearby galaxies gravitationally interact with one another. It is possible that the spiral galaxy to the lower-right, NGC 470, has been tugging on its larger friend for billions of years, causing density waves to reshape its structure. ...

Beautiful picture made with perfect filters, 440 nm, 557 nm and 655 nm. Perfect RGB!

Note how the smaller spiral galaxy, NGC 470, is both yellower (because of dust) and bluer (because of star formation) than dust-free, non-starforming elliptical shell galaxy NGC 474.

Beautiful picture!

Ann

[starsurfer]

Ripples and Shells
ESO Picture of the Week | 2020 Jan 06

Image Credit: ESO

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Compared to their more intricate spiral cousins, elliptical galaxies resemble soft, hazy clouds. These galaxies have smooth, undefined boundaries, and bright cores surrounded by a fuzzy, diffuse glow. However, looks can be deceiving. At least 10% of ellipticals extend much further out into the cosmos than you might expect, and possess a range of far finer structures than first meets the eye — features such as loops and shells.

Located around 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Pisces (The Fish), the galaxy to the upper-left of this image is named NGC 474. It is a stunning example of a shell elliptical galaxy; enormous wispy tails flick around the galaxy’s main body, while the inner structure is formed of a series of nested concentric rings. In fact, the full extent of the galaxy cannot even be contained in this field of view. The tendril-like outer regions of NGC 474 billow and wisp away like smoke, extending outwards for large distances from the galaxy’s main bulk.

Astronomers are unsure why some galaxies take on this kind of appearance and structure, but they believe it concerns gravity — namely, how nearby galaxies gravitationally interact with one another. It is possible that the spiral galaxy to the lower-right, NGC 470, has been tugging on its larger friend for billions of years, causing density waves to reshape its structure. ...

This is amazing! I love shell elliptical galaxies.

[starsurfer]

Sh2-140
http://www.capella-observatory.com/Imag ... H2-140.htm
Copyright: Frank Sackenheim, Josef Pöpsel and Stefan Binnewies

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NGC 253
https://www.glitteringlights.com/Images ... /i-tzf9bDr
Copyright: Marco Lorenzi

Click to view full size image

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NGC 55
http://www.cielaustral.com/galerie/photo106.htm
Copyright: Ciel Austral

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Fe 6
https://www.astrobin.com/261644/D/
Copyright: Sascha Schüller

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SMC
https://www.astrobin.com/359202/
Copyright: Tommy Nawratil

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Sh2-126 and LBN 437
https://www.astrobin.com/363121/
Copyright: Alberto Pisabarro

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NGC 2442
https://www.eso.org/public/images/ngc2442/
Copyright: ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/R. Gendler, J.-E. Ovaldsen, C. C. Thöne and C. Féron

Click to view full size image

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NGC 7098
https://astrodonimaging.com/gallery/ngc-7098/
Copyright: Don Goldman

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NGC 474
http://www.chart32.de/index.php/component/k2/item/210
Copyright: CHART32
Processing: Volker Wendel

Click to view full size image

[bystander]

Dome of Light
ESO Picture of the Week | 2020 Jan 13

Image Credit: Petr Horálek/ESO

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Once used as the otherworldly lair for a James Bond villain, the ESO Residencia usually serves a far less sinister purpose! Since construction was completed in 2002, it has been a home from home for the astronomers, engineers and technicians working at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile. The sleek building sits 2400 metres above sea level in the Mars-like Atacama Desert, just a few kilometres from Cerro Paranal — the mountain that hosts ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA).

During the day the hotel is bathed in natural sunlight, which enters the building via a huge 35-metre-diameter dome on the roof. Seen here at night, the glass of the dome is beautifully illuminated beneath the Milky Way’s kaleidoscopic arch of blues, reds and pinks. Two neighbouring galaxies — the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds — can be seen as white smudges beneath the curve of the Milky Way, with many colourful, bright stars bejewelling the surrounding scene.

[bystander]

Catalogues Galore
ESA Hubble Picture of the Week | 2020 Jan 13

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Bellini et al.

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This bright, somewhat blob-like object — seen in this Picture of the Week as observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope — is a galaxy named NGC 1803. It is about 200 million light-years away, in the southern constellation of Pictor (The Painter’s Easel).

NGC 1803 was discovered in 1834 by astronomer John Herschel. Herschel is a big name in astronomy; John, his father William, and his aunt Caroline all made huge contributions to the field, and their legacies remain today. William systematically catalogued many of the objects he viewed in the night sky, named many moons in the Solar System, discovered infrared radiation, and more. Caroline discovered several comets and nebulae. John took this aforementioned catalogue of night-sky objects and reworked and expanded it into his General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars (GC). This was the basis for the cataloguing system still used today by astronomers (Dreyer’s New General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars, or the New General Catalogue for short).

This gives rise to the NGC names assigned to a vast number of galaxies — including NGC 1803. This galaxy is one of a galactic pair. It was described by Dreyer as being “faint, small, [and] round”, and located near to a very bright star to the southeast. This star is in fact the nebulous lenticular galaxy PGC 16720 — not visible in this image.

[Ann]

James D Wray listed the galaxies in his Color Atlas of Galaxies according to their NGC numbers. Similarly, Sky Catalogue 2000.0 listed its stars according to their HD numbers.

That is why I always think of galaxies as NGC objects and stars as HD entities.

Ann

[PoPaul]

Milky Way stabilized
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w8OK7M2 ... e=youtu.be

Source:

Norédine Benazdia
@Benazdia
Cette vidéo de la Voie lactée stabilisée nous permet de visualiser le mouvement de la Terre dans l'espace.
Cette vidéo est de Eric Brummel et ça vaut le coup de la voir en HD sur sa chaine Youtube : https://buff.ly/2Zm5SYP

[starsurfer]

Crescent Nebula (NGC 6888) and Soap Bubble Nebula
https://www.flickr.com/photos/avdhoeven/48444565416/
Copyright: Andre van der Hoeven

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NGC 6946 and NGC 6939
https://www.astrobin.com/419946/E/
Copyright: Hunter Harling

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NGC 5905 and NGC 5908
http://astrodvorek.cz/Pags/en5905.html
Copyright: Jan K. Zehrovicky