Astronomers create a dazzling, elaborate map of nearby galaxy in thousands of colors
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Astronomers have revealed a nearby spiral galaxy in all its brilliant glory, shining in thousands of colors.
The dazzling panoramic shot released Wednesday of the Sculptor galaxy by a telescope in Chile is so detailed that it's already serving as a star-packed map.
Scientists used the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope to observe the galaxy for some 50 hours, stitching together more than 100 exposures to create the picture. The image spans 65,000 light-years, almost the entire galaxy. A light-year is 5.8 trillion miles.
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Nearby Sculptor galaxy revealed in ultra-detailed galactic image
By Will Dunham WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Sculptor galaxy is similar in many respects to our Milky Way. It is about the same size and mass, with a similar spiral structure. But while it is impossible to get a full view of the Milky Way from the vantage point of Earth because we are inside the galaxy, Sculptor is perfectly positioned for a good look. Astronomers have done just that, releasing an ultra-detailed image of the Sculptor galaxy on Wednesday obtained with 50 hours of observations using one of the world's biggest telescopes, the European Southern Observatory's Chile-based Very Large Telescope. The image shows Sculptor, also called NGC 253, in around 4,000 different colors, each corresponding to a specific wavelength in the optical spectrum. Because various galactic components emit light differently across the spectrum, the observations are providing information at unprecedented detail on the inner workings of an entire galaxy, from star formation to the motion of interstellar gas on large scales. Conventional images in astronomy offer only a handful of colors, providing less information. The researchers used the telescope's Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer, or MUSE, instrument. "NGC 253 is close enough that we can observe it in remarkable detail with MUSE, yet far enough that we can still see the entire galaxy in a single field of view," said astronomer Enrico Congiu, a fellow at the European Southern Observatory in Santiago, and lead author of research being published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. "In the Milky Way, we can achieve extremely high resolution, but we lack a global view since we're inside it. For more distant galaxies, we can get a global view, but not the fine detail. That's why NGC 253 is such a perfect target: it acts as a bridge between the ultra-detailed studies of the Milky Way and the large-scale studies of more distant galaxies. It gives us a rare opportunity to connect the small-scale physics with the big-picture view," Congiu said. Sculptor is about 11 million light-years from Earth, making it one of the closest big galaxies to the Milky Way. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, 5.9 trillion miles (9.5 trillion km). Like the Milky Way, it is a barred spiral galaxy, meaning it has an elongated structure extending from its nucleus, with spiral arms extending from the ends of the bar. Its diameter of about 88,000 light-years is similar to the Milky Way's, as is its total mass. One major difference is Sculptor's rate of new star formation, estimated to be two to three times greater than that of the Milky Way. Nearly 30% of this star formation is happening near the galaxy's nucleus in what is called a starburst region, as revealed in colorful emissions shown in the new image. The observations have given information on a wide range of properties such as the motion, age and chemical composition of stars and the movement of interstellar gas, an important component of any galaxy. "Since the light from stars is typically bluer if the stars are young or redder if the stars are old, having thousands of colors lets us learn a lot about what stars and populations of stars exist in the galaxy," said astronomer Kathryn Kreckel of Heidelberg University in Germany, a study co-author. "Similarly for the gas, it glows in specific bright emission lines at very specific colors, and tells us about the different elements that exist in the gas, and what is causing it to glow," Kreckel said. The initial research being published from the observations involves planetary nebulae, which are luminous clouds of gas and dust expelled by certain dying stars. Despite their name, they have nothing to do with planets. These nebulae can help astronomers measure the precise distances of faraway galaxies. The researchers marveled at the scientific and aesthetic value of the new view of Sculptor. "I personally find these images amazing," Congiu said. "What amazes me the most is that every time I look at them, I notice something new - another nebula, a splash of unexpected color or some subtle structure that hints at the incredible physics behind it all."
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Sculptor Galaxy shines in 1,000 spectacular colors
While we still don't know if we are truly the only intelligent life in the universe, we are certainly not alone as far as galaxies. There are an estimated 100 to 200 billion galaxies–dust clouds, stars, gas, and planets all bound together by gravity–swirling around in the universe. Now, an international team of astronomers is getting a better look at one that's not so far away–in space terms–from our home Milky Way galaxy. Using data from the European Southern Observatory's Very Large Telescope in Chile, the team created an incredibly detailed image of the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253). The team observed this 11 million light-years away spiral galaxy in thousands of colors, which features the brilliant stars living within it. The image and its implications are detailed in a study accepted for publication in the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics. 'Galaxies are incredibly complex systems that we are still struggling to understand,' study co-author and ESO astronomer Enrico Congiu said in a statement. Galaxies themselves can reach hundreds of thousands of light-years across, making them extremely large. Despite their size, how they evolved ultimately depends on what is going on at smaller scales. 'The Sculptor Galaxy is in a sweet spot,' said Congiu. 'It is close enough that we can resolve its internal structure and study its building blocks with incredible detail, but at the same time, big enough that we can still see it as a whole system.' Like Lego bricks, the building blocks of a galaxy–dust, gas, and stars–all emit different colors and astronomers use various imaging filters to study and detect what's inside. Astronomers can detect the wavelengths of light released by the elements hydrogen, nitrogen, sulphur and oxygen across the galaxy. The more shades of color included when imaging of a galaxy, the more we can understand its inner workings. Conventional images generally take in a galaxy using a handful of colors, but this new Sculptor map comprises thousands of hues. The researchers observed the Sculptor Galaxy for over 50 hours with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on the VLT to create the detailed map. They then stitched together over 100 exposures to cover an area of the galaxy that's about 65,000 light-years wide. 'We can zoom in to study individual regions where stars form at nearly the scale of individual stars, but we can also zoom out to study the galaxy as a whole,' said study co-author Kathryn Kreckel from Heidelberg University, Germany. [ Related: Where do all those colors in space telescope images come from? ] The pink light throughout the image represents the gas excited by the radiation of newborn stars. The cone of whiter light at the center is due to an outflow of gas from the black hole at the galaxy's core. In the first analysis of the data, the team discovered roughly 500 planetary nebulae–regions of gas and dust flung off dying sun-like stars. Study co-author and Heidelberg University doctoral student Fabian Scheuermann put that number of nebulae into context: 'Beyond our galactic neighbourhood, we usually deal with fewer than 100 detections per galaxy.' Due to the different properties within, planetary nebulae can be used as cosmic distance markers to their host galaxies. 'Finding the planetary nebulae allows us to verify the distance to the galaxy — a critical piece of information on which the rest of the studies of the galaxy depend,' study co-author and astronomer at The Ohio State University Adam Leroy added. In future projects with this map, astronomers hope to explore how gas flows, changes its composition, and forms stars all across this large galaxy. 'How such small processes can have such a big impact on a galaxy whose entire size is thousands of times bigger is still a mystery,' said Congiu.
