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#galaxy

63 posts38 participants7 posts today
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Arp Bot 🤖

Spitzer, VLA, and CFHT MegaCam image of Arp 94, also known as NGC 3226 and NGC 3227.

The grayscale Canada France Hawaii Telescope image shows visible starlight. Blue is cool hydrogen gas in radio light from the Very Large Array. Red is warm gas and dust in infrared light from Spitzer.

The blue filament of warm gas floods into the top galaxy shuts down star formation.

Credit: NASA, CFHT, NRAO, JPL-Caltech, Duc, Cuillandre
Source: spitzer.caltech.edu/image/sig1

Two interacting galaxies appear on a field of stars. A black and white image of the galaxies taken in visible light is overlaid with radio (blue) and infrared (pink) images. The bottom galaxy is a large spiral. It is tilted slightly, so that its disk forms an oval rather than a circle. The top galaxy is a bright elliptical galaxy. It is oval shaped with a bright center that gets gradually fainter and more transparent towards its edges. A plume of gas and stars surrounds and appears to rise from the galaxies, like smoke from a campfire. The blue radio light snakes around the outside of the spiral galaxy, through the elliptical galaxy and into the plume, forming a teardrop shape. The pink infrared light highlights the centers of the spiral and elliptical galaxies.
#ArpGalaxy#Galaxy#Space
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leece

We have been blessed/cursed by a very dry Djeran / Autumn period. Cursed because no rain after a long, hot Bunuru( Second Summer) and blessed because the nights are cold, and very clear.

This and @rdm having to be on Munich time for a few days prompted some enthusiastic astrophotography sessions ahead of the news that the clouds were finally coming to us with some rain.

We figured that we'd do a lot of astrophotography, and then write it up and share photos during the rainy cloudy bits to keep us going.

So here we are - this is my first post about it, and it's about the last day of the clear sky.

We have here NGC 4945 or Caldwell 83 - also known as the Tweezers Galaxy (I personally think it looks more like an orange peeler).

I was leafing through Astronomy Australia 2025 and found it as a target for May. I hadn't come across this galaxy before, and was thrilled to find a galaxy that's a big enough apparent size to suit my #dwarf3

These are great books and the last of this great almanac that they'll publish, after 30 years - so get yours today - quasarastronomy.com.au/product even though it's a yearbook it's still going to be useful down the track. If you're in Australia or close enough. #SouthernHemisphereAstronomy folks. I grabbed some of their back catalogue - incredibly cheap and plenty of interesting stuff in there, if only historically. 🙂

So, anyway, back to the galaxy - I plonked the #SmartTelescope on the roof later in the evening so it's only a few hours exposure. Gain was 80, exposure was 60. Got a few hundred frames in two sessions as I belatedly realised that I should get the telescope to shut down before the closest Sun made itself apparent.

So then, in the morning @rdm ran me through the Mega Stack and Stellar Studio provided through Infinity Lab within the telescope, which was super easy, and then I did some cropping in Snapseed.

And this is the result, I hope you enjoy!

A highly populated starfield, there are also a few little fuzzy yellow galaxies. In the middle a Seyfert type galaxy sits at an angle between two big blue white stars. Text in the corner reads Caldwell 83 Alicia Smith (c) 2025
#Astrodon#Astronomy#BackyardAstrophotography
Continued thread
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grobi

By: Markus Pössel (MPIA and HdA)

Galactic tendrils shed light on the evolution of spiral galaxies
Spiral Galaxies devour their satellites

It's a "galaxy-eats-galaxy" Universe out there! According to current models, galaxies grow by ingesting other star systems. While gigantic elliptical galaxies are believed to result when two or more massive precursor galaxies merge, spiral galaxies, such as our own Milky Way, grow by swallowing smaller dwarf galaxies.

Around the Milky Way galaxy and in the vicinity of our immediate cosmic neighborhood, known as the "Local Group" of galaxies, traces of spiral galaxies swallowing dwarf galaxies have been known since 1997. But the Local group's three principal spiral galaxies and retinue of dwarfs is not a large enough sample to test theoretical predictions about the frequency of such digestive processes. Now, a new survey has managed to detect the tell-tale tendrils of galactic digestion beyond the Local Group. An international group of researchers led by David Martínez-Delgado (Max-Planck Institute for Astronomy and Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias) has completed a pilot survey of spiral galaxies at distances of up to 50 million light-years from Earth, discovering the tell-tale signs of spirals eating dwarfs.

When a spiral galaxy is approached by a much smaller companion, such as a dwarf galaxy, the larger galaxy's uneven gravitational pull will start to severely distort the smaller star system. Over the course of a few billion years, tendril-like structures develop. In one typical outcome, the smaller galaxy is transformed into an elongated tidal stream consisting of stars that, over the course of billions more years, eventually join the galaxy's regular stellar inventory through a process of complete assimilation. The study shows that major tidal streams ...
read more >>
cosmotography.com/images/galax

* Source: Max Planck Institute for Astronomy

Galactic tendrils shed light on the evolution of spiral galaxies Spiral Galaxies devour their satellites Smaller satellite galaxies caught by a spiral galaxy are distorted into elongated star filled structures called tidal streams, as shown in this artist's impression. A new pilot survey has, for the first time, shown the tell-tale traces of spiral galaxies swallowing smaller satellites around star systems more distant than our own Local Group of galaxies. * Illustration credit: Jon Lomberg
#space#galaxy#astrophotography
Continued thread
Public *
grobi

A galactic sunflower

The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in a new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the centre of a sunflower. So the nickname for this cosmic object — the Sunflower Galaxy — is no coincidence.

Discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1779, the galaxy later made it as the 63rd entry into fellow French astronomer Charles Messier’s famous catalogue, published in 1781. The two astronomers spotted the Sunflower Galaxy’s glow in the small, northern constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs). We now know this galaxy is about 27 million light-years away and belongs to the M51 Group — a group of galaxies, named after its brightest member, Messier 51, another spiral-shaped galaxy dubbed the Whirlpool Galaxy.

Galactic arms, sunflowers and whirlpools are only a few examples of nature’s apparent preference for spirals. For galaxies like Messier 63 the winding arms shine bright because of the presence of recently formed, blue–white giant stars, readily seen in this Hubble image.

Credit:

ESA/Hubble & NASA

esahubble.org/images/potw1536a

A galactic sunflower The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in a new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the centre of a sunflower. So the nickname for this cosmic object — the Sunflower Galaxy — is no coincidence. Discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1779, the galaxy later made it as the 63rd entry into fellow French astronomer Charles Messier’s famous catalogue, published in 1781. The two astronomers spotted the Sunflower Galaxy’s glow in the small, northern constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs). We now know this galaxy is about 27 million light-years away and belongs to the M51 Group — a group of galaxies, named after its brightest member, Messier 51, another spiral-shaped galaxy dubbed the Whirlpool Galaxy. Galactic arms, sunflowers and whirlpools are only a few examples of nature’s apparent preference for spirals. For galaxies like Messier 63 the winding arms shine bright because of the presence of recently formed, blue–white giant stars, readily seen in this Hubble image. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
#space#galaxy#astrophotography
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grobi

TOPIC>

Curly Spiral Galaxy M63
* Image Credit & Copyright: Alberto Pisabarro
app.astrobin.com/u/silkpericle

Explanation:
A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is nearby, about 30 million light-years distant toward the loyal constellation Canes Venatici. Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic island universe is nearly 100,000 light-years across, about the size of our own Milky Way. Its bright core and majestic spiral arms lend the galaxy its popular name, The Sunflower Galaxy. This exceptionally deep exposure also follows faint loops and curling star streams far into the galaxy's halo. Extending nearly 180,000 light-years from the galactic center, the star streams are likely remnants of tidally disrupted satellites of M63. Other satellite galaxies of M63 can be spotted in the remarkable wide-field image, including dwarf galaxies, which could contribute to M63's star streams in the next few billion years.
app.astrobin.com/u/silkpericle
app.astrobin.com/i/xeei1h?r=F
messier.seds.org/m/m063.html
arxiv.org/abs/2011.04984
cosmotography.com/images/galax
esahubble.org/images/potw1536a

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100109.ht
apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250513.ht

apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250522.ht

2025 May 22 Curly Spiral Galaxy M63 * Image Credit & Copyright: Alberto Pisabarro Explanation: A bright spiral galaxy of the northern sky, Messier 63 is nearby, about 30 million light-years distant toward the loyal constellation Canes Venatici. Also cataloged as NGC 5055, the majestic island universe is nearly 100,000 light-years across, about the size of our own Milky Way. Its bright core and majestic spiral arms lend the galaxy its popular name, The Sunflower Galaxy. This exceptionally deep exposure also follows faint loops and curling star streams far into the galaxy's halo. Extending nearly 180,000 light-years from the galactic center, the star streams are likely remnants of tidally disrupted satellites of M63. Other satellite galaxies of M63 can be spotted in the remarkable wide-field image, including dwarf galaxies, which could contribute to M63's star streams in the next few billion years. Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply. NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U.
#space#galaxy#astrophotography
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