Not Our Astrophotography - Blog Posts

Wow, it really does look like a hummingbird!

2023 September 25

Arp 142: The Hummingbird Galaxy Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble, HLA; Processing & Copyright: Basudeb Chakrabarti

Explanation: What’s happening to this spiral galaxy? Just a few hundred million years ago, NGC 2936, the upper of the two large galaxies shown at the bottom, was likely a normal spiral galaxy – spinning, creating stars – and minding its own business. But then it got too close to the massive elliptical galaxy NGC 2937, just below, and took a turn. Sometimes dubbed the Hummingbird Galaxy for its iconic shape, NGC 2936 is not only being deflected but also being distorted by the close gravitational interaction. Behind filaments of dark interstellar dust, bright blue stars form the nose of the hummingbird, while the center of the spiral appears as an eye. Alternatively, the galaxy pair, together known as Arp 142, look to some like Porpoise or a penguin protecting an egg. The featured re-processed image showing Arp 142 in great detail was taken recently by the Hubble Space Telescope. Arp 142 lies about 300 million light years away toward the constellation of the Water Snake (Hydra). In a billion years or so the two galaxies will likely merge into one larger galaxy.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230925.html

2023 December 29

Shakespeare in Space Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI

Explanation: In 1986, Voyager 2 became the only spacecraft to explore ice giant planet Uranus close up. Still, this newly released image from the NIRCam (Near-Infrared Camera) on the James Webb Space Telescope offers a detailed look at the distant world. The tilted outer planet rotates on its axis once in about 17 hours. Its north pole is presently pointed near our line of sight, offering direct views of its northern hemisphere and a faint but extensive system of rings. Of the giant planet’s 27 known moons, 14 are annotated in the image. The brighter ones show hints of Webb’s characteristic diffraction spikes. And though these worlds of the outer Solar System were unknown in Shakespearean times, all but two of the 27 Uranian moons are named for characters in the English Bard’s plays.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231229.html

“What in the world is that?” That’s a natural reaction when you first see this Hubble Space Telescope image of LL Pegasi. The extremely dim spiral pattern is real, and its regularity suggests a periodic origin for the nebula’s shape.

The spiral is thought to arise because LL Pegasi is a binary system, with a star that is losing material and a companion star orbiting it. The companion’s gravitational influence helps sculpt the nebula. The spacing between layers in the spiral reflects the 800-year orbital period of the binary.

Credit: ESA/NASA & R. Sahai.

ALT TEXT: At center left, a faint spiral structure with wide bands has a dark, dusty center. To its right, a bright white star displays four prominent diffraction spikes. A handful of smaller, more distant background galaxies are also scatted throughout the image.

The Spaghetti Nebula, Sh2-240 // Wolfgang Bernhardt

I see an angry fox about to breathe fire.

Hind's Variable Nebula, NGC 1555 // Rocco Sung

The Bearclaw Nebula, Sh2-200 // Dionysus

The Seyfert galaxy NGC 5985 (on the left) contains an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN).

AGN are so. Amazing.

In the dead center of the galaxy lies a supermassive black hole—and a large amount of other matter spiraling into it, caught in the gravitational well. As matter falls in, it accelerates to relativistic speeds, ripping apart until even atoms are split into plasma, and because plasma is not electrically neutral the metaphorical whirlwind of it generates an extremely strong electromagnetic field.

That field blasts matter away from the black hole in jets. These can be truly enormous. A single jet emanating from the black hole in the monstrous elliptical galaxy M87 is roughly ten times the length of our entire Milky Way Galaxy.

Seyfert galaxies are calmer than that, but the mechanism is the same. Bright, powerful AGN tend to be found in galaxies further from our own, while Seyferts dominate the AGN population in our local universe.

At BSU, we've imaged Markarian 421, a type of AGN called a blazar, so-named because the jet is aimed almost directly toward Earth.: "blazing" bright. We're in the process of studying our data, but the eventual goal is to determine limits for the mass of the black hole powering it. The student who spearheaded that research is now pursuing a Ph.D. at Purdue University!

2023 July 1

Three Galaxies in Draco Image Credit & Copyright: David Vernet , Jean-François Bax , Serge Brunier, OCA/C2PU

Explanation: This tantalizing trio of galaxies sometimes called the Draco Group, is located in the northern constellation of (you guessed it) Draco, the Dragon. From left to right are face-on spiral NGC 5985, elliptical galaxy NGC 5982, and edge-on spiral NGC 5981, all found within this single telescopic field of view that spans a little more than the width of the full moon. While the group is far too small to be a galaxy cluster, and has not been catalogued as a compact galaxy group, the three galaxies all do lie roughly 100 million light-years from planet Earth. Not as well known as other tight groupings of galaxies, the contrast in visual appearance still makes this triplet an attractive subject for astroimagers. On close examination with spectrographs, the bright core of striking spiral NGC 5985 shows prominent emission in specific wavelengths of light, prompting astronomers to classify it as a Seyfert, a type of active galaxy. This impressively deep exposure hints at a faint dim halo along with sharp-edged shells surrounding elliptical NGC 5982, evidence of past galactic mergers. It also reveals many even more distant background galaxies.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230701.html

The Dragon's Egg Nebula, NGC 6164 // Daniel Stern

Messier-20 is called the “Trifid Nebula” because of the three bright lobes in the lower purple-coloured area. This purple region is emitting light, while the upper blue area is just reflecting it.

It is a local star-forming region in our Milky Way galaxy (4,000 light years away). (at Bordeaux, France) https://www.instagram.com/p/B1bxBljC5H9/?igshid=1g0i6zddk37k

2024 January 9

Thor’s Helmet Image Credit & Copyright: Ritesh Biswas

Explanation: Thor not only has his own day (Thursday), but a helmet in the heavens. Popularly called Thor’s Helmet, NGC 2359 is a hat-shaped cosmic cloud with wing-like appendages. Heroically sized even for a Norse god, Thor’s Helmet is about 30 light-years across. In fact, the cosmic head-covering is more like an interstellar bubble, blown with a fast wind from the bright, massive star near the bubble’s center. Known as a Wolf-Rayet star, the central star is an extremely hot giant thought to be in a brief, pre-supernova stage of evolution. NGC 2359 is located about 15,000 light-years away toward the constellation of the Great Overdog. This remarkably sharp image is a mixed cocktail of data from narrowband filters, capturing not only natural looking stars but details of the nebula’s filamentary structures. The star in the center of Thor’s Helmet is expected to explode in a spectacular supernova sometime within the next few thousand years.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240109.html

2024 January 16

The Orion You Can Almost See Image Credit & Copyright: Michele Guzzini

Explanation: Do you recognize this constellation? Although it is one of the most recognizable star groupings on the sky, this is a more full Orion than you can see – an Orion only revealed with long exposure digital camera imaging and post- processing. Here the cool red giant Betelgeuse takes on a strong orange tint as the brightest star on the upper left. Orion’s hot blue stars are numerous, with supergiant Rigel balancing Betelgeuse on the lower right, and Bellatrix at the upper right. Lined up in Orion’s belt are three stars all about 1,500 light-years away, born from the constellation’s well-studied interstellar clouds. Just below Orion’s belt is a bright but fuzzy patch that might also look familiar – the stellar nursery known as Orion’s Nebula. Finally, just barely visible to the unaided eye but quite striking here is Barnard’s Loop – a huge gaseous emission nebula surrounding Orion’s Belt and Nebula discovered over 100 years ago by the pioneering Orion photographer E. E. Barnard.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240116.html

Webb + Hubble > peanut butter + chocolate? We think so!

In this image of galaxy cluster MACS0416, the Hubble and James Webb space telescopes have united to create one of the most colorful views of the universe ever taken. Their combination of visible and infrared light yields vivid colors that give clues to the distances of galaxies (blue = close, red = far).

Looking at the combined data, scientists have spotted a sprinkling of sources that vary over time, including highly magnified supernovas and even individual stars billions of light-years away.

Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI, J. Diego (Instituto de Fisica de Cantabria, Spain), J. D’Silva (U. Western Australia), A. Koekemoer (STScI), J. Summers & R. Windhorst (ASU), and H. Yan (U. Missouri).

ALT TEXT: A field of galaxies on the black background of space. In the middle, stretching from left to right, is a collection of dozens of yellowish spiral and elliptical galaxies that form a foreground galaxy cluster. They form a rough, flat line along the center. Among them are distorted linear features, which mostly appear to follow invisible concentric circles curving around the center of the image. The linear features are created when the light of a background galaxy is bent and magnified through gravitational lensing. At center left, a particularly prominent example stretches vertically about three times the length of a nearby galaxy. A variety of brightly colored, red and blue galaxies of various shapes are scattered across the image, making it feel densely populated. Near the center are two tiny galaxies compared to the galaxy cluster: a very red edge-on spiral and a very blue face-on spiral, which provide a striking color contrast.

"The Imperfect Angel Nebula", NGC 2170 // zombi

If galaxies could talk, we’d want to ask for this galaxy’s skincare routine!

Meet I Zwicky 18, a galaxy lying 60 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.

The bluish-white knots in the center are regions where stars are forming at a rapid rate. These large hubs of stellar creation and the lack of heavy elements in the surrounding gas caused astronomers to think that this dwarf irregular galaxy was very young, since it resembles galaxies in the early universe.

However, the Hubble Space Telescope revealed that I Zwicky 18 is more mature than it first appears. Hubble found faint, older stars within the galaxy, indicating that I Zwicky 18 has been forming stars for more than a billion years.

Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Aloisi (Space Telescope Science Institute and European Space Agency).

ALT TEXT: A bright white and blue oval-shaped area takes up most of the view and is largely centered. Cloud-like wisps of blue material surround the bright-white center, forming a fluffy wreath-like shape. The fluffy material begins as light blue near the center and gradually darkens moving outward. Stars, seen as many bright white and yellow small points of light, are densely grouped in the white and light blue region, forming two roughly circular clumps, one in the upper left and one in the lower right. The corners of the image are dark and mostly empty, with a few larger, fuzzy yellow points of light scattered infrequently throughout.

The Needle Galaxy, NGC 4565 // Michael Cole

M104: The Sombrero Galaxy

Credits: Bray Falls

What is casting dark shadows across 36,000 light-years of space in this Hubble Space Telescope image?

The mysterious dark rays appearing to emanate from galaxy IC 5063 have intrigued astronomers, and there are a few different ideas about what is causing them. They could be like the shadows of clouds when light from the setting Sun pierces through them.

Astronomers have traced the rays back to the galaxy’s core, the location of an active supermassive black hole. One idea suggests that the shadows are being cast into space by an inner tube-shaped ring, or torus, of dusty material surrounding the black hole.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and W.P. Maksym (CfA).

ALT TEXT: Rust-colored view of space, with a bright, narrow purple region at the center, a galaxy. Background stars and galaxies are scattered sparsely—this is a dusty rather than starry scene. To the upper left of the bright central region are dark dust lanes. Opposite these to the lower right, one dark area extends from the central bright region and splits into two dark rays. Similar dark rays can be seen to the top left, behind the dust lanes. The edges of the entire image are dark, fading from the colored center.

In case of confusion, the observatory is not open this Wednesday.

As consolation, here's the 'Great Turkey Nebula' of 2020 from Astronomy Picture Of The Day. I wonder what APOD's cooking this year?

The Great Turkey Nebula Imagination Credit & Copyright:Eric Coles

Explanation: Surprisingly reminiscent of The Great Nebula in Orion, The Great Turkey Nebula spans this creative field of view. Of course if it were the Orion Nebula it would be our closest large stellar nursery, found at the edge of a large molecular cloud a mere 1,500 light-years away. Also known as M42, the Orion Nebula is visible to the eye as the middle "star" in the sword of Orion the Hunter, a constellation now rising in planet Earth's evening skies. Stellar winds from clusters of newborn stars scattered throughout the Orion Nebula sculpt its ridges and cavities seen in familiar in telescopic images. Much larger than any bird you might be cooking, this Great Turkey Nebula was imagined to be similar in size to the Orion Nebula, about 13 light-years across. Stay safe and well. (APOD, 2020 Nov. 16).

Source: https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap201126.html

View of Saturn's moon Hyperion as captured by Cassini spacecraft

This striking image captures the interacting galaxy pair known as Arp-Madore 2339-661, so named because they belong to the Arp-Madore catalogue of peculiar galaxies. However, this particular peculiarity might be even odder than first meets the eye, as there are in fact three galaxies interacting here, not just two. 

The two clearly defined galaxies are NGC 7733 (smaller, lower right) and NGC 7734 (larger, upper left). The third galaxy is currently referred to as NGC 7733N, and can actually be spotted in this picture if you look carefully at the upper arm of NGC 7733, where there is a visually notable knot-like structure, glowing with a different colour to the arm and obscured by dark dust. 

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Uranus and some of its moons on October 20, 2023 // Louis Fico

I think the moons in this image could be Titania, Umbriel, Ariel, and Oberon, tho which points of light they are is hard to say

The Horsehead Nebula (Barnard 33, below center) and the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024, below left of center) // AstroFortWayne

Mare Cognitum ("The Sea that has Become Known") with Kuiper crater at the center // l'AstroVan

Mare Cognitum ("The Sea that has Become Known") is the landing sites of several lunar missions. Ranger 7 (1964) impacted here after its mission was finished; Surveyor 3 (1967) and Apollo 12 (1969) landed near its northern shore; and Apollo 14 (1971) landed near this mare as well.

Kuiper crater is named after the Dutch-American astronomy Gerard Kuiper (1905-1973), the father of modern planetary science

2023 October 10

Hidden Orion from Webb Image Credit & License: NASA, ESA, CSA, JWST; Processing: M. McCaughrean & S. Pearson

Explanation: The Great Nebula in Orion has hidden stars. To the unaided eye in visible light, it appears as a small fuzzy patch in the constellation of Orion. But this image was taken by the Webb Space Telescope in a representative-color composite of red and very near infrared light. It confirms with impressive detail that the Orion Nebula is a busy neighborhood of young stars, hot gas, and dark dust. The rollover image shows the same image in representative colors further into the near infrared. The power behind much of the Orion Nebula (M42) is the Trapezium - a cluster of bright stars near the nebula’s center. The diffuse and filamentary glow surrounding the bright stars is mostly heated interstellar dust. Detailed inspection of these images shows an unexpectedly large number of Jupiter-Mass Binary Objects (JuMBOs), pairs of Jupiter-mass objects which might give a clue to how stars are forming. The whole Orion Nebula cloud complex, which includes the Horsehead Nebula, will slowly disperse over the next few million years.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231010.html

Young Stars, Stellar Jets via NASA https://ift.tt/mUE9hQK

The 2023 Partial (Annular) Solar Eclipse as seen from Nevada // Brian Fulda

2023 October 18

Dust and the Western Veil Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Jiang Wu

Explanation: It’s so big it is easy to miss. The entire Veil Nebula spans six times the diameter of the full moon, but is so dim you need binoculars to see it. The nebula was created about 15,000 years ago when a star in the constellation of the Swan (Cygnus) exploded. The spectacular explosion would have appeared brighter than even Venus for a week - but there is no known record of it. Pictured is the western edge of the still-expanding gas cloud. Notable gas filaments include the Witch’s Broom Nebula on the upper left near the bright foreground star 52 Cygni, and Fleming’s Triangular Wisp (formerly known as Pickering’s Triangle) running diagonally up the image middle. What is rarely imaged – but seen in the featured long exposure across many color bands – is the reflecting brown dust that runs vertically up the image left, dust likely created in the cool atmospheres of massive stars.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231018.html

Skyshark

Man sees what he wants to see, and so it is with the Dark Nebula LDN 1235. This collection of dust in the constellation Cepheus is very reminiscent of a shark. At just 650 light years away, it is just around the corner.

Object type: Dark nebula

Constellation: Cepheus

Total exposure: 720 minutes

Image data:

- RGB 144 x 300s / Gain 100

- 25 flats

- 25 Bias

- 25 Darks

Setup:

- Skywatcher 150/750 F5 PDS

- Omegon 571C

- Skywatcher EQ6R Pro

- Two Asi 178mm as guide cam

Interacting galaxy

Interacting galaxies (colliding galaxies) are galaxies whose gravitational fields result in a disturbance of one another. An example of a minor interaction is a satellite galaxy’s disturbing the primary galaxy’s spiral arms. An example of a major interaction is a galactic collision, which may lead to a galaxy merger.

A giant galaxy interacting with its satellites is common. A satellite’s gravity could attract one of the primary’s spiral arms, or the secondary satellite’s path could coincide with the position of the primary satellite’s and so would dive into the primary galaxy (the Sagittarius Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy into the Milky Way being an example of the latter). That can possibly trigger a small amount of star formation. Such orphaned clusters of stars were sometimes referred to as “blue blobs” before they were recognized as stars.

Colliding galaxies are common during galaxy evolution. The extremely tenuous distribution of matter in galaxies means these are not collisions in the traditional sense of the word, but rather gravitational interactions.

Colliding may lead to merging if two galaxies collide and do not have enough momentum to continue traveling after the collision. In that case, they fall back into each other and eventually merge into one galaxy after many passes through each other. If one of the colliding galaxies is much larger than the other, it will remain largely intact after the merger. The larger galaxy will look much the same, while the smaller galaxy will be stripped apart and become part of the larger galaxy. When galaxies pass through each other, unlike during mergers, they largely retain their material and shape after the pass.

Galactic collisions are now frequently simulated on computers, which use realistic physics principles, including the simulation of gravitational forces, gas dissipation phenomena, star formation, and feedback. Dynamical friction slows the relative motion galaxy pairs, which may possibly merge at some point, according to the initial relative energy of the orbits.

Astronomers have estimated the Milky Way galaxy, will collide with the Andromeda galaxy in about 4.5 billion years. It is thought that the two spiral galaxies will eventually merge to become an elliptical galaxy or perhaps a large disk galaxy.

Source

Image credit: NASA/ESA & Hubble (procesed by:  Steve Byrne & Judy Schmidt)

Animation

2023 October 4

IC 2118: The Witch Head Nebula Image Credit & Copyright: Abdullah Alharbi

Explanation: Does this nebula look like the head of a witch? The nebula is known popularly as the Witch Head Nebula because, it is said, the nebula’s shape resembles a Halloween-style caricature of a witch’s head. Exactly how, though, can be a topic of imaginative speculation. What is clear is that IC 2118 is about 50 light-years across and made of gas and dust that points to – because it has been partly eroded by – the nearby star Rigel. One of the brighter stars in the constellation Orion, Rigel lies below the bottom of the featured image. The blue color of the Witch Head Nebula and is caused not only by Rigel’s intense blue starlight but because the dust grains scatter blue light more efficiently than red. The same physical process causes Earth’s daytime sky to appear blue, although the scatterers in planet Earth’s atmosphere are molecules of nitrogen and oxygen.

∞ Source: apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap231004.html