Starship Asterisk*

ESA/Hubble & NASA wrote:

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures the spiral galaxy NGC 105, which lies roughly 215 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces. While it looks like NGC 105 is plunging edge-on into a collision with a neighbouring galaxy, this is just the result of the chance alignment of the two objects in the night sky. NGC 105’s elongated neighbour is actually far more distant and remains relatively unknown to astronomers. These misleading conjunctions occur frequently in astronomy — for example, the stars in constellations are at vastly different distances from Earth, and only appear to form patterns thanks to the chance alignment of their component stars.

Credit: ESO/ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)/PHANGS

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This picture of the week looks almost good enough to eat! However, despite its resemblance to a mouthwatering caramel swirl it is in fact an image of the NGC 1300 galaxy, located approximately 61 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus. NGC 1300 is a spiral galaxy, with a bar of stars and gas –– seen here crossing the image horizontally –– and a central ring of intense star formation.

The image is a combination of observations conducted at different colours –– or wavelengths –– of light. The golden caramel glow corresponds to clouds of molecular gas, the raw material out of which stars form. These data were taken with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner. The bluish regions in the background reveal the distribution of slightly older, already formed stars, imaged by the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT).

The images were taken as part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) project, which is making high-resolution observations of nearby galaxies with telescopes operating across all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum. Different wavelengths can reveal a multitude of secrets about a galaxy, and by comparing them astronomers are able to study what activates, boosts or hinders the birth of new stars.

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

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The lazily winding spiral arms of the spectacular galaxy NGC 976 fill the frame of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This spiral galaxy lies around 150 million light-years from the Milky Way in the constellation Aries. Despite its tranquil appearance, NGC 976 has played host to one of the most violent astronomical phenomena known — a supernova explosion. These cataclysmicly violent events take place at the end of the lives of massive stars, and can outshine entire galaxies for a short period. While supernovae mark the deaths of massive stars, they are also responsible for the creation of heavy elements that are incorporated into later generations of stars and planets.

Supernovae are also a useful aid for astronomers who measure the distances to faraway galaxies. The amount of energy thrown out into space by supernova explosions is very uniform, allowing astronomers to estimate their distances from how bright they appear to be when viewed from Earth. This image — which was created using data from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 — comes from a large collection of Hubble observations of nearby galaxies which host supernovae as well as a pulsating class of stars known as Cepheid variables. Both Cepheids and supernovae are used to measure astronomical distances, and galaxies containing both objects provide useful natural laboratories where the two methods can be calibrated against one another.

Image Credit: ESO/M. Zamani

Like a silent sentinel, ESO’s VLT Survey Telescope (VST) stands under the scattered stars of the Milky Way in this ethereal Picture of the Week.

The VST, which recently celebrated its 10th birthday, is located at ESO’s Paranal Observatory along with its namesake, the Very Large Telescope (VLT). However, the VST serves a very different purpose to the VLT. Rather than scrutinising small patches of the sky in great detail, it constantly scans much wider areas of the sky, mapping and cataloging celestial sources ranging from nearby stars to distant galaxies.

ESO’s Paranal Observatory, in Chile’s Atacama Desert, is an ideal location to carry out ground-based astronomy. It boasts over 300 clear nights per year and its remote location, far from light pollution, gives rise to skies that are dark enough to see the Milky Way in the stunning detail captured in this image.

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESO, R. J. Foley

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The spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 3318 are lazily draped across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This spiral galaxy lies in the constellation Vela and is roughly 115 million light-years away from Earth. Vela was originally part of a far larger constellation, known as Argo Navis after the fabled ship Argo from Greek mythology, but this unwieldy constellation proved to be impractically large. Argo Navis was split into three separate parts called Carina, Puppis, and Vela — each named after part of the Argo. As befits a galaxy in a nautically inspired constellation, the outer edges of NGC 3318 almost resemble a ship’s sails billowing in a gentle breeze.

Despite its placid appearance, NGC 3318 has played host to a spectacularly violent astronomical phenomenon, a titanic supernova first detected by an amateur astronomer in 2000. Thanks to NGC 3318’s distance from Earth, the original supernova must have taken place in or around 1885. Coincidentally, this was the year in which the only supernova ever to be detected in our neighbouring galaxy Andromeda was witnessed by 19th-century astronomers.

bystander wrote: ↑Mon Jan 17, 2022 3:58 pm Sail of Stars
ESA Hubble Picture of the Week | 2022 Jan 17

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, ESO, R. J. Foley

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The spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 3318 are lazily draped across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This spiral galaxy lies in the constellation Vela and is roughly 115 light-years away from Earth.

Despite its placid appearance, NGC 3318 has played host to a spectacularly violent astronomical phenomenon, a titanic supernova first detected by an amateur astronomer in 2000. Thanks to NGC 3318’s distance from Earth, the original supernova must have taken place in or around 1885. Coincidentally, this was the year in which the only supernova ever to be detected in our neighbouring galaxy Andromeda was witnessed by 19th-century astronomers.

Sci News wrote:
NGC 3318 is located approximately 115 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Vela.