Sombrero Galaxy Photo Enigmas
Posted: Sun Jan 29, 2006 9:13 am
Sombrero Galaxy Photo Enigmas
On January 15, 2006, APOD displayed a very enigmatic Hubble photo of the Sombrero Galaxy. I am fortunate to have some limited image processing capability, and used it on the enlarged “big” photo. As such, I always try to look for what else is in these astronomical photos (aside from the main object) that others may not know about, or may not be that obvious. HAVE ANY OF YOU SEEN WHAT OTHER FANTASTIC IMAGES ARE IN THIS “SOMBRERO” PHOTO????!! I have attached two of them in a small JPG image.
The first is of the two “dull” stars at the BOTTOM of the image, about 2/3 toward the left. The JPG “image3” shows what details my processing has brought out, the right part of the image showing some sort of strange interaction between these two “stars”. Any idea what in the heck is going on here? I’ve seen all kinds of astronomical images before, but NOTHING LIKE THIS. Does anyone know if this double-star-whatever-it-is has a name, and/or is listed in any of the star catalogs?
I have read over some of the posts of others who have also noted this, claiming they may be some sort of “twin galaxies”. I would tend to disagree with this, viewing the processed image that I obtained. We definitely need some much higher resolution images of these two “stars” to find out what is really going on.
Have any of you people managed to produce a much better processed image of this astronomical anomaly? If so, I’d sure like to see it and compare it to what I have -- and hopefully get some better ideas of what is happening here.
The left part of my JPG (image3) is of a resolved “fuzz-ball” at the far bottom-right of the “Sombrero” photo. Does this galaxy have a name or some catalog classification number? Is a better picture of it available?
There are several other interesting images in this Hubble photo, aside from the main Sombrero Galaxy and what I have shown here. In the future, I hope to offer several other processed images of the additional items present in this “Sombrero” photo.
-- B.C. Stanley
P.S. -- This is my first post. If I do something incorrectly, please give me a break -- or offer some help and suggestions. Thanks. -- B.C.S.
P.P.S. -- I may have a problem in entering my JPG image to accompany this post. If you do not see the image, help appreciated. I think you will find my processed image very interesting and informative. -- B.C.S.
[img]
I tried and tried and tried to submit my image, but could not figure out how to do so. Better instructions and more friendly options, APOD people -- please?!
On January 15, 2006, APOD displayed a very enigmatic Hubble photo of the Sombrero Galaxy. I am fortunate to have some limited image processing capability, and used it on the enlarged “big” photo. As such, I always try to look for what else is in these astronomical photos (aside from the main object) that others may not know about, or may not be that obvious. HAVE ANY OF YOU SEEN WHAT OTHER FANTASTIC IMAGES ARE IN THIS “SOMBRERO” PHOTO????!! I have attached two of them in a small JPG image.
The first is of the two “dull” stars at the BOTTOM of the image, about 2/3 toward the left. The JPG “image3” shows what details my processing has brought out, the right part of the image showing some sort of strange interaction between these two “stars”. Any idea what in the heck is going on here? I’ve seen all kinds of astronomical images before, but NOTHING LIKE THIS. Does anyone know if this double-star-whatever-it-is has a name, and/or is listed in any of the star catalogs?
I have read over some of the posts of others who have also noted this, claiming they may be some sort of “twin galaxies”. I would tend to disagree with this, viewing the processed image that I obtained. We definitely need some much higher resolution images of these two “stars” to find out what is really going on.
Have any of you people managed to produce a much better processed image of this astronomical anomaly? If so, I’d sure like to see it and compare it to what I have -- and hopefully get some better ideas of what is happening here.
The left part of my JPG (image3) is of a resolved “fuzz-ball” at the far bottom-right of the “Sombrero” photo. Does this galaxy have a name or some catalog classification number? Is a better picture of it available?
There are several other interesting images in this Hubble photo, aside from the main Sombrero Galaxy and what I have shown here. In the future, I hope to offer several other processed images of the additional items present in this “Sombrero” photo.
-- B.C. Stanley
P.S. -- This is my first post. If I do something incorrectly, please give me a break -- or offer some help and suggestions. Thanks. -- B.C.S.
P.P.S. -- I may have a problem in entering my JPG image to accompany this post. If you do not see the image, help appreciated. I think you will find my processed image very interesting and informative. -- B.C.S.
[img]
I tried and tried and tried to submit my image, but could not figure out how to do so. Better instructions and more friendly options, APOD people -- please?!