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Hubble's M82, 16 years of success

SigurRosFan View Member Profile	Apr 24 2006, 05:19 PM Post #1
Member Group: Members Posts: 531 Joined: 24-August 05 Member No.: 471	- http://spacetelescope.org/news/html/heic0604.html Enjoy! -------------------- - blue_scape / Nico -

dilo View Member Profile	Apr 25 2006, 07:02 AM Post #2
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2492 Joined: 15-January 05 From: center Italy Member No.: 150	Magnificent image... just downloaded full res version, I can see single stars!!! Simply stuunning. -------------------- I always think before posting! - Marco -

ljk4-1 View Member Profile	Apr 25 2006, 01:05 PM Post #3
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430	And to think at one time astronomers thought M82 was a galaxy undergoing an explosion from its center! http://weblore.com/richard/m82_exploding_galaxy.htm What would cause such a thing anyway? I believe Larry Niven was inspired by M82 to have our Milky Way galaxy undergoing a similar destruction in his science fiction universe (the one with Ringworld and the Puppeteers, who were moving their entire solar system out of the galaxy before the shockwaves hit). -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined, and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853

dilo View Member Profile	Apr 25 2006, 01:19 PM Post #4
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2492 Joined: 15-January 05 From: center Italy Member No.: 150	Yes, I recall this explaination in the old astronomy books! I believed it, but this is the clear example of how improved resolution can change our ideas... About explaination mechanism, ESA image caption tells: "Stellar winds streaming from these hot new stars also have combined to form a fierce galactic superwind. This superwind compresses enough gas to make millions more stars and blasts out towering plumes of hot ionised hydrogen gas, above and below the disk of the galaxy (seen in red in the image)". The reason for the stroger density of this gas above and below the galaxy bulge should lie in the higher stellar density combined with galactic-plane induced anisotropy. And now you can see newborn stars coming out from this gas! -------------------- I always think before posting! - Marco -

ljk4-1 View Member Profile	Apr 25 2006, 01:41 PM Post #5
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430	QUOTE (dilo @ Apr 25 2006, 09:19 AM) And now you can see newborn stars coming out from this gas! You sure those aren't stars in our galaxy that just happen to be in the line of sight to M82? -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined, and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853

SigurRosFan View Member Profile	Apr 25 2006, 05:27 PM Post #6
Member Group: Members Posts: 531 Joined: 24-August 05 Member No.: 471	A wonderful composite ... Great Observatories Present Rainbow of a Galaxy - http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/happenings/20060424/ -------------------- - blue_scape / Nico -

dilo

Apr 26 2006, 09:23 AM

Post #7

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QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ Apr 25 2006, 01:41 PM)

You sure those aren't stars in our galaxy that just happen to be in
the line of sight to M82?

I'm pretty sure, look at these crops where you can see the 3 distinct populations (main M82 disk, newborn in the polar region and black field). Based on lower image, foreground Milky Way faintest population has quite lower density...

Attached thumbnail(s)

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I always think before posting! - Marco -

ugordan View Member Profile	Apr 26 2006, 10:56 AM Post #8
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 3648 Joined: 1-October 05 From: Croatia Member No.: 523	Those images look to me more like clumps of gas and dust than individual stars, especially the red looking regions. Maybe tightly packed star clusters at best. I can't believe the resolving power is anywhere near that needed to pick out anything except the most giant stars. -------------------- www.flickr.com/photos/ugordan

ljk4-1 View Member Profile	Apr 26 2006, 12:55 PM Post #9
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2454 Joined: 8-July 05 From: NGC 5907 Member No.: 430	QUOTE (dilo @ Apr 26 2006, 05:23 AM) I'm pretty sure, look at these crops where you can see the 3 distinct populations (main M82 disk, newborn in the polar region and black field). Based on lower image, foreground Milky Way faintest population has quite lower density... I based my initial comment on just the main big image they showed. Those close up sections do seem to show individual stars. The one at the top certainly looks like it has several globular clusters in it. Theoretically, how far can a galaxy get where HST can still image individual stars? -------------------- "After having some business dealings with men, I am occasionally chagrined, and feel as if I had done some wrong, and it is hard to forget the ugly circumstance. I see that such intercourse long continued would make one thoroughly prosaic, hard, and coarse. But the longest intercourse with Nature, though in her rudest moods, does not thus harden and make coarse. A hard, sensible man whom we liken to a rock is indeed much harder than a rock. From hard, coarse, insensible men with whom I have no sympathy, I go to commune with the rocks, whose hearts are comparatively soft." - Henry David Thoreau, November 15, 1853

Bob Shaw View Member Profile	Apr 26 2006, 01:43 PM Post #10
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239	QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ Apr 26 2006, 01:55 PM) Theoretically, how far can a galaxy get where HST can still image individual stars? If you count supernovas, it's VERY distant! Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!

dilo View Member Profile	Apr 26 2006, 01:58 PM Post #11
Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2492 Joined: 15-January 05 From: center Italy Member No.: 150	Gordan, more careful reading of caption seems to confirm your impression: QUOTE The individual clusters in the clumps can only be distinguished in the ultra-sharp Hubble images. Most of the pale objects sprinkled around the main body of M82 that look like fuzzy stars are actually star clusters about 20 light-years across and containing up to a million stars. Anyway, considering the relatively short distance (12 million light years) I'm convinced that most bright points visible in the top "disc" portion are bright stars, while most of the red objects in the mid portion are small, young clusters... -------------------- I always think before posting! - Marco -

Jyril View Member Profile	Apr 26 2006, 05:21 PM Post #12
Member Group: Members Posts: 249 Joined: 11-June 05 From: Finland (62°14′N 25°44′E) Member No.: 408	QUOTE (ljk4-1 @ Apr 26 2006, 03:55 PM) Theoretically, how far can a galaxy get where HST can still image individual stars? Dunno, but it has imaged individual Cepheids in the galaxy M100, which is located in the Virgo Cluster some 60 million light years away. -------------------- The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.

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