Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted By admin On March 19, 2011 @ 1:28 pm In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
[1]- Click to enlarge image
Messier 106
Image Credit & Copyright [2]: R Jay Gabany [3]
Explanation: Close to the Great Bear [4] (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars of the Hunting Dogs [5] (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was discovered [6] in 1781 by the metric [7] French astronomer Pierre Mechain [8]. Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles Messier as M106 [9]. Modern deep telescopic views reveal it to be an island universe [10] — a spiral galaxy around 30 thousand light-years across located only about 21 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky Way. Along with a bright central core, this colorful composite image [11] highlights youthful blue star clusters and reddish stellar nurseries tracing the galaxy’s spiral arms [12]. It also shows off remarkable reddish jets of [13] glowing hydrogen gas. In addition to small companion galaxy NGC 4248 (bottom right) background galaxies can be found scattered throughout the frame. M106 (aka NGC 4258) is a nearby example of the Seyfert class [14] of active galaxies, seenacross the spectrum [15] from radio to x-rays. Active galaxies are believed to be powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole [16].
Visit the NASA/JPL website to view more Astronomy Pictures of the Day [17]
Article printed from Recorder Online: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com
URL to article: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2011/03/19/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-39/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/lrg_ngc4258gabany.jpg
[2] Copyright: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
[3] R Jay Gabany: http://www.cosmotography.com/index.html
[4] Great Bear: http://www.astropix.com/HTML/C_SPRING/BIGDIP.HTM
[5] Hunting Dogs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canes_Venatici
[6] discovered: http://www.seds.org/messier/Mdes/dm106.html
[7] metric: http://www.britannica.com/eb/article?eu=52982
[8] Pierre Mechain: http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/history/pmechain.html
[9] M106: http://www.seds.org/messier/m/m106.html
[10] island universe: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080124.html
[11] this colorful composite image: http://www.cosmotography.com/images/small_close_ngc4258.html
[12] the galaxy’s spiral arms: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070411.html
[13] jets of: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0703307
[14] Seyfert class: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap981023.html
[15] across the spectrum: http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/multiwavelength_astronomy/multiwavelength_astronomy/
[16] central black hole: http://www.cosmotography.com/images/supermassive_blackholes_drive_galaxy_evolution.html
[17] Astronomy Pictures of the Day: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
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