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24.01.2022 This southern sky barred spiral galaxy shines bright in the southern skies, from about 45 million light-years away. NGC 1097 has a supermassive black hole at its center, which is 140 million times the mass of the Sun. Around the central black hole is a glowing ring of star-forming regions with a network of gas and dust that spirals from the ring to the black hole. An inflow of material toward the central bar of the galaxy causes new stars to be created in the ring. The ring is approximately 5,000 light-years in diameter, the spiral arms of the galaxy extend tens of thousands of light-years beyond the ring.
24.01.2022 NGC5170 is a rarely photographed spiral galaxy approximately 96 million light years distant. The core is comprised of old yellow stars, with young blue stars in its spiral arms, obscured by prominent dust lanes.
22.01.2022 Sharing is caring.
19.01.2022 The Red Spider Nebula (also catalogued as NGC 6537) is a planetary nebula located near the heart of the Milky Way. The central white dwarf, the remaining compact core of the original star, produces a powerful and hot (10,000 K) wind blowing with a speed of 300 kilometers per second, which has generated waves 100 billion kilometres high. The waves are generated by supersonic shocks formed when the local gas is compressed and heated in front of the rapidly expanding lobes. Atoms caught in the shocks radiate a visible light. These winds are what give this nebula its unique 'spider' shape and also contribute to the expansion of the nebula. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Spider_Nebula)
18.01.2022 Nifty planning guide for astrophotographers who will want to capture the Dec 21 closest conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn for 397 years
16.01.2022 IC 4601 is a reflection nebula within the larger Blue Horsehead Nebula. Reflection nebulas are actually made up of dust that normally appears dark but can reflect the light of nearby stars.
13.01.2022 NGC 6744 (Caldwell 101) is a spiral galaxy about 31 million light-years away, tilted towards our line of sight. It is thought to be one of the most Milky Way-like spiral galaxies in our immediate vicinity. It also has at least one distorted companion galaxy similar to the Magellanic Clouds.
11.01.2022 NGC 2626 is a seldom photographed, spectacular reflection nebula in a sea of hydrogen emission clouds. Total integration 19 hours 15 minutes. Focal length: 1980mm
09.01.2022 NGC 3717 is a large spiral galaxy 60 million light years from Earth. Although 100,000 light years across, seen side-on, the galactic disk appears thin with prominent dust lanes.
09.01.2022 NGC 1808 has an unusual, warped shape. Most spiral galaxies are flat disks, but this one has curls of dust and gas at its outer spiral arms. This peculiar shape is evidence that NGC 1808 may have had a close interaction with another nearby galaxy, NGC 1792, which is not in the picture. Such an interaction could have hurled gas towards the nucleus of NGC 1808, triggering the exceptionally high rate of star birth (Source: https://sci.esa.int//hub/-/16927-starburst-galaxy-ngc-...1808) NGC 1808 is a 40 million light-years away, and stretches about 35,000 light-yeas across.
06.01.2022 The Saturn Nebula is a tiny but complex planetary nebula, ~4000 light years away in Aquarius. The Saturn Nebula gets its name from its resemblance to the planet Saturn to the observer. This is an extremely bright object, making it difficult to tease out the details without saturating the camera sensor.
05.01.2022 The Fornax Cluster is a cluster of 58 galaxies centered around 62 million light years distant. The brightest member is the elliptical galaxy NGC 1316 at the top left, with a great barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 at the bottom right of the image. An interesting but dim irregular galaxy NGC 1427A is visible at the above the center of the leftmost edge of the image. If you look really close at NGC 1247A, there is a small yellow smudge at about 2 o'clock. That's a Milky Way size sp...iral galaxy 1.3 billion light years away. Total Exposure: 16.4 hours @ 600mm
04.01.2022 IC 5325 is a rarely photographed spiral galaxy in the Phoenix constellation. This is a 10 hour exposure of the galaxy at a focal length of 2.8 metres.
03.01.2022 M68 is a globular cluster at a distance of about 33,000 light-years away from Earth. The cluster may be undergoing core-collapse, and it displays signs of being in rotation. The cluster may have been acquired by the Milky Way galaxy through accretion from a satellite galaxy. (Source: Wikipedia)
