Found Images: 2021 June

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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 500K.

Thank you!

<< Previously

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ETHOS 1
https://www.astrobin.com/6igb01/
Copyright: Rauno Päivinen

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Jacoby 1
https://www.astrobin.com/7hpqu8/
Copyright: Boris Chausov

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StDr Object 20
https://www.astrobin.com/fde4xb/
Copyright: Maicon Germiniani

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PaGo 2
https://www.imagingdeepspace.com/pago2.html
Copyright: Peter Goodhew

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Grand Designs
ESO Picture of the Week | 2021 Jun 07

Credit: ESO

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This ESO Picture of the Week features a galaxy named both NGC 4254 and Messier 99, a beautiful cosmic spectacle located in the constellation of Coma Berenices (Berenice’s Hair).

Messier 99 is special, owing to its classification as a grand design spiral galaxy: a kind of galactic architecture featuring strong, prominent, well-defined arms that wrap clearly around the galaxy’s centre. Only around 10 percent of all spirals are of the grand design variety, making objects like Messier 99 somewhat uncommon. The justification behind Messier 99’s categorisation is clear in this image; bright, swirling arms carve through the dark surrounding space, and are easily identifiable as a number of different, coherent structures.

This image was created as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems programme, an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes, for the purposes of education and public outreach. The programme makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations. All data collected may also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to astronomers through ESO’s science archive.

[bystander]

A Spiral Amongst Friends
ESA Hubble Picture of the Week | 2021 Jun 07

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

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This image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), features the spiral galaxy NGC 4680. At 2 o’clock and 7 o’clock two other galaxies can be seen flanking NGC 4680. NGC 4680 enjoyed a wave of attention in 1997, as it played host to a supernova explosion known as SN 1997bp. Amazingly, the supernova was identified by an Australian amateur astronomer named Robert Evans, who has identified an extraordinary 42 supernova explosions.

NGC 4680 is actually a rather tricky galaxy to classify. It is sometimes referred to as a spiral galaxy, but it is also sometimes classified as a lenticular galaxy. Lenticular galaxies fall somewhere in between spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. Whilst NGC 4680 does have distinguishable spiral arms, they are not clearly defined, and the tip of one arm appears very diffuse. Galaxies are not static, and their morphologies (and therefore their classifications) vary throughout their lifetimes. Spiral galaxies are thought to evolve into elliptical galaxies, most likely by merging with one another, causing them to lose their distinctive spiral structures.

[Ann]

A Spiral Amongst Friends
ESA Hubble Picture of the Week | 2021 Jun 07

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

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This image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), features the spiral galaxy NGC 4680. At 2 o’clock and 7 o’clock two other galaxies can be seen flanking NGC 4680. NGC 4680 enjoyed a wave of attention in 1997, as it played host to a supernova explosion known as SN 1997bp. Amazingly, the supernova was identified by an Australian amateur astronomer named Robert Evans, who has identified an extraordinary 42 supernova explosions.

NGC 4680 is actually a rather tricky galaxy to classify. It is sometimes referred to as a spiral galaxy, but it is also sometimes classified as a lenticular galaxy. Lenticular galaxies fall somewhere in between spiral galaxies and elliptical galaxies. Whilst NGC 4680 does have distinguishable spiral arms, they are not clearly defined, and the tip of one arm appears very diffuse. Galaxies are not static, and their morphologies (and therefore their classifications) vary throughout their lifetimes. Spiral galaxies are thought to evolve into elliptical galaxies, most likely by merging with one another, causing them to lose their distinctive spiral structures.

I like the image! Do note the stellar populations in it!

In the center, there is a quite small yellow inner bulge (and an overexposed core).

The arms clearly contain congregations of clusters and almost certainly pink emission nebulas.

The surrounding inner disk is blue from, probably, a mixture of stars like Regulus (a star of spectral class B7) and Sirius (a star of spectral class A0). There is obviously a large number of cool faint stars there as well, but they don't affect the color of the inner disk.

The outer disk is "beige" from a huge number of faint red stars. There has been no star formation here for a long time.

I love it when you can spot the stellar populations so clearly!

Ann

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Iris Nebula (NGC 7023)
http://www.capella-observatory.com/Imag ... aEifel.htm
Copyright: Josef Pöpsel, Stefan Binnewies and Frank Sackenheim

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NGC 918
http://www.astrophoton.com/NGC0918.htm
Copyright: Bernhard Hubl

Click to view full size image

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NGC 249 region
https://www.hansonastronomy.com/ngc-249-in-smc
Data: Martin Pugh
Processing: Mark Hanson

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NGC 6726 region
http://www.cielaustral.com/galerie/photo126.htm
Copyright: Ciel Austral

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Abell 1367
http://astrodvorek.cz/Pags/eA1367.html
Copyright: Jan K. Zehrovicky

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Praesepe (M44)
https://www.astrobin.com/jcbj39/
Copyright: Giuseppe Donatiello

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NGC 4725 and NGC 4747
https://www.astrobin.com/kodkx9/0/
Copyright: Jarrett Trezzo

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NGC 5927
http://members.pcug.org.au/~stevec/ngc5 ... 0_RC14.htm
Copyright: Steve Crouch

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NGC 6744
http://www.karelteuwen.be/photo_page.ph ... 0&album=18
Copyright: Karel Teuwen

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Touching the Arc of Space
ESO Picture of the Week | 2021 Jun 14

Image Credit: ESO/Petr Horálek

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The dark skies above ESO’s Paranal Observatory, home to ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), yield breathtaking views so clear and so full of stars that you could almost touch them. Standing atop a platform at VLT, ESO Photo Ambassador Petr Horálek reaches towards a standout object in the sky. You may assume this bright body, like many others in the sky, to be a star, but it is in fact a planet in our Solar System: the gas giant Jupiter.

Closer to Earth, the four Unit Telescopes (UTs) that comprise the VLT can be seen in the background. Each UT features an 8.2-metre mirror and they operate synergistically to produce some of the sharpest views of the Universe. Accompanying the four UTs are four smaller, moveable Auxiliary Telescopes (ATs) which have 1.8-metre mirrors.

The Chilean Atacama desert once again proves its value as the ideal location for ESO’s VLT. The remoteness of the observatory means that there is very little to no light pollution, which is vital for astronomy and also yields such breathtaking views.

[bystander]

A Galactic Powerhouse
ESA Hubble Picture of the Week | 2021 Jun 14

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

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This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3254, observed using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). WFC3 has the capacity to observe ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared light, and this image is a composite of observations taken in the visible and infrared. In this image, NGC 3254 looks like a typical spiral galaxy, viewed side-on. However, NGC 3254 has a fascinating secret that it is hiding in plain sight — it is a Seyfert galaxy, meaning that it has an extraordinarily active core, known as an active galactic nucleus, which releases as much energy as the rest of the galaxy put together.

Seyfert galaxies are not rare — about 10% of all galaxies are thought to be Seyfert galaxies. They belong to the class of “active galaxies” — galaxies that have supermassive black holes at their centres that are actively accreting material, which releases vast amounts of radiation as it is accreted. There is a second, far more active, type of active galaxy that is known as a quasar. The active cores of Seyfert galaxies, such as NGC 3254, are brightest when observed in light outside the visible spectrum. At other wavelengths, this image would look very different, with the galaxy’s core shining extremely brightly.

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IC 417 and NGC 1931
https://www.astrobin.com/qleoe5/
Copyright: Kurt Zeppetello

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NGC 2170
https://www.astrobin.com/ywzc16/
Copyright: Yuexiao Shen

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Sh2-188
https://www.astrobin.com/328179/B/
Copyright: Jonathan Blake

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M106
https://www.astrobin.com/fa2rxj/C/
Copyright: Tyrel Smith

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NGC 2634 region
https://www.astrobin.com/ienc83/0/
Copyright: Bart Delsaert

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NGC 5468
https://esahubble.org/images/potw1948a/
Copyright: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al
Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt

Click to view full size image