APOD: NGC 253 Close-Up (2008 Oct 02)

[Indigo_Sunrise]

NGC 253 fuzzy areas? (APOD 02 Oct 2008)

Images like today's:

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081002.html

almost make me want to sign up for a 'Digg' account.....

Breathtaking! 8)

[emc]

NGC 253 lies a mere 13 million light-years away…

I always enjoy these understatements from the editor’s. It is good to have a sense of humor, especially when your work is light years away. “A mere 13 million”… hah!… kind of makes me want to put on my slippers and mosey on over to borrow a cup of sugar… just to get acquainted with whatever my cosmic neighborhood alien might be.

Say, maybe they don’t have sugar… reckon I better take a cup over instead and offer it up as a gesture of goodwill. Hey… wait a minute… what if they are allergic to sugar or worse. Maybe sugar is deathly poisonous to their metabolism. That would be bad… I would likely be considered hostile and a threat to their peaceful existence. Maybe I best just sit here and enjoy my APODs.

[neufer]

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap081002.html
Breathtaking! 8)

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maelstrom

<<A maelstrom (or malström/malstrøm in the Scandinavian languages) is a very powerful whirlpool; a large, swirling body of water. A free vortex, it has considerable downdraft. The Nordic word was introduced into English by Edgar Allan Poe in his story "A Descent into the Maelstrom" (1841). In turn, the Nordic word may have been borrowed from Dutch maelstrom (modern spelling maalstroom). The original Maelstrom (described by Poe and others) is the Moskstraumen, a powerful tidal current in the Lofoten Islands off the Norwegian coast.>>
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http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060421.html

<<Explanation: Shiny NGC 253, sometimes called the Silver Dollar Galaxy, is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible - and also one of the dustiest. First swept up in 1783 by mathematician and astronomer Caroline Herschel, the dusty island universe lies a mere 10 million light-years away in the southern constellation Sculptor. About 70 thousand light-years across, NGC 253 is the largest member of the Sculptor Group of Galaxies, the nearest to our own Local Group of Galaxies. In addition to its spiral dust lanes, striking tendrils of dust seem to be rising from the galactic disk in this gorgeous view. The high dust content accompanies frantic star formation, giving NGC 253 the designation of a starburst galaxy. NGC 253 is also known to be a strong source of high-energy x-rays and gamma rays, likely due to massive black holes near the galaxy's center.>>
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http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010607.html

<<Explanation: Astronomers now report that Chandra X-ray Observatory observations of galaxies known to be frantically forming stars show that these galaxies also contain luminous x-ray sources -- thought to be intermediate mass black holes and immense clouds of superheated gas. Take the lovely island universe NGC 253 for example. At distance of a mere 8 million light-years, NGC 253's prodigious starforming activity has been well studied using high-resolution optical images like the one seen here at lower left. Zooming in on this energetic galaxy's central region, Chandra's x-ray detectors reveal hidden details indicated in the inset at right. In the false-color image, x-ray hot gas clouds glow near the core and at least four very powerful x-ray sources lie within 3,000 light-years of the center of the galaxy. Much more luminous than black hole binary star systems in our own galaxy, these extreme x-ray sources may be gravitating toward NGC 253's center. As a result, NGC 253 and other similar starforming galaxies could ultimately develop a single, central, supermassive black hole, transforming their cores into quasars.>>
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. The Black Hole (1979)
.
Durant: There's an entirely different universe beyond that black hole. A point where time and space as we know it no longer exists. We will be the first to see it, to explore it, to experience it!
.
[after first seeing the black hole]
Lieutenant Charles Pizer: Every time I see one of those things I expect to spot some guy dressed in red with horns and a pitchfork.
.
Dan Holland: It's a monster, all right.
.
V.I.N.CENT: A rip in the very fabric of space and time.
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"A Descent into the Maelström" by Edgar Allan Poe.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Descent_ ... _Maelstrom

<<Inspired by the Moskstraumen, it is couched as a story within a story, a tale told at the summit of a mountain climb. The story is told by an old man who reveals that he only appears old - "You suppose me a very old man," he says, "but I am not. It took less than a single day to change these hairs from a jetty black to white, to weaken my limbs, and to unstring my nerves." The narrator, convinced by the power of the whirlpools he sees in the ocean beyond, is then told of the "old" man's fishing trip with his two brothers a few years ago.

Driven by "the most terrible hurricane that ever came out of the heavens", their ship was caught in the vortex. One brother was pulled into the waves; the other was driven mad by the horror of the spectacle, and drowned as the ship was pulled under. At first the narrator only saw hideous terror in the spectacle, and felt helpless. Then, as a moment of revelation, he saw that the Maelström is a beautiful and awesome creation. Suddenly seeing how objects around him are pulled into it, he deduced that "the larger the bodies, the more rapid their descent" and that spherical-shaped objects were pulled in the fastest. Unlike his brother, he abandoned ship and held on to a cylindrical barrel until he was saved several hours later. The old man tells the story to the narrator without any hope that the narrator will believe it.>>
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[bentsn]

There are four fuzzy areas in the picture, top and bottom near the center and top and bottom further right. What is the cause of these areas. Since they are placed top and bottom it seems to me that they are likely to be artifacts rather than of astronomical significance.

Does anyone out there know what these fuzzy areas are?

[Indigo_Sunrise]

Welcome, bentsn!

I downloaded and viewed the large - 14 MB - file, and the blurred areas are evident in that image as well. Maybe it's something to do with the lens, or perhaps when the images were put together..?
The link I used was this one:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archiv ... fastfacts/

Hopefully someone with more knowledge will be along to answer your question better than I. In the meantime, enjoy your stay!

[bystander]

Hubble ANGST

angst (uncountable)

• A feeling of acute but vague anxiety or apprehension often accompanied by depression, especially philosophical anxiety.
  More commonly, painful sadness or emotional turmoil.

[BCD]

In comparing the Oct 2 image with the "edge-on ngc253" view linked in the description I noticed there are several dark ray filiments shown on the edge on view that seem to emanate from the entire top surface of the galaxy. They almost look like those lines you see when you spray filings to show up magnetic field lines in any physics class. Is there any discussion of this? I've never heard of this discussed before.

[Chris Peterson]

There are four fuzzy areas in the picture, top and bottom near the center and top and bottom further right. What is the cause of these areas. Since they are placed top and bottom it seems to me that they are likely to be artifacts rather than of astronomical significance.

Does anyone out there know what these fuzzy areas are?

It's not uncommon when images are constructed from multiple data sources (as this one was) for there to be areas of missing data. I'd guess that's what we're seeing.

[Arramon]

geez mon... can people not leave prints while handling the glossy photos please... dang.

=b

*handles photo by edges*

[jesusfreak16]

It is annoying when you find fingerprints on a photo.