Starship Asterisk*

Secrets of Space Blobs Revealed
Space.com - 2009 June 24

Glowing with an eerie brightness, the massive blobs seem to surround very young galaxies. NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes examined the distant gas balls and found that their luminosity is likely due to energy released by black holes and star formation inside the galaxies.

Galaxies 'Coming of Age' in Cosmic Blobs
NASA Mission Pages - Chandra - 2009 June 23
Astronomy.com - 2009 June 24
Science Centric - 2009 June 25

New data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory and other telescopes has helped NASA pinpoint the "coming of age" of galaxies and black holes. This is a crucial stage of the evolution of galaxies and black holes -- known as "feedback" -- that astronomers have long been trying to understand. The discovery also helps resolve the true nature of gigantic blobs of gas observed around very young galaxies.

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/chand ... 9-047.html
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/09_rel ... 62409.html
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2009/labs/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CkOfeSNsWpM

I'd beware of the blob!

Orin

In the related Chandra X-ray Center release it states "The artist's representation on the right shows what one of the galaxies inside a blob might look like if viewed at a relatively close distance". I take that to mean the illustration is a general one for all galaxies in a Lyman Alpha Blob (LAB), but I'm unsure as it may be based on findings about this particular LAB. I wonder if anyone knows if the illustration is based on findings about this LAB.

DavidLeodis wrote:In the related Chandra X-ray Center release it states "The artist's representation on the right shows what one of the galaxies inside a blob might look like if viewed at a relatively close distance". I take that to mean the illustration is a general one for all galaxies in a Lyman Alpha Blob (LAB), but I'm unsure as it may be based on findings about this particular LAB. I wonder if anyone knows if the illustration is based on findings about this LAB.

I think your assumption that the illustration is generic is correct. There was also a link to a video at the Chandra site.

Thanks for your reply bystander.

Commenting on an illustration is more difficult than commenting on an actual original image.

“Lyman-alpha emissions spanning several hundred thousand light-years…radiation and outflows from the active galaxy are… heating the blob's hydrogen gas.”

It sounds like the galaxy is igniting its emissions. When I was in college a bunch of us guys sat around doing something similar, though admittedly it wasn't on the same scale.

“Lyman-alpha blobs could represent an early phase in galaxy formation….”

College age, perhaps?