Astronomers capture most detailed image of a galaxy of its kind ever seen
Astronomers have created the most detailed image of a galaxy of its kind ever seen.
The 'incredibly detailed' picture shows parts of the Sculptor Galaxy that have never been seen before.
Scientists were able to European Southern Observatory 's Very Large Telescope to create the most detailed image that shows thousands of colours ever made.
It was created by observing the galaxy for 50 hours, and stitching together 100 exposures. The width of the image shows 65,000 light years across space, almost the full galaxy.
The Sculptor Galaxy is officially known as NGC 254. It is a starburst galaxy, where stars are being constantly formed.
The detail of the new image allows scientists to see the building blocks themselves – the stars, gas and dust – in fine detail. Each of them emits their own shade of light, so having it in such fine detail and colours means that scientists can deeply understand the small parts of what is happening in the galaxy.
'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 co-author Kathryn Kreckel from Heidelberg University.
Researchers can use those different shades to understand the age, composition and motion of the parts of the galaxy.
"The Sculptor galaxy is in a sweet spot," the observatory's Enrico Congiu, who led the research, said in a statement. "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."
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Reuters
4 hours ago
- Reuters
Nearby Sculptor galaxy revealed in ultra-detailed galactic image
WASHINGTON, June 18 (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."
The Independent
4 hours ago
- The Independent
Astronomers capture most detailed image of a galaxy of its kind ever seen
Astronomers have created the most detailed image of a galaxy of its kind ever seen. The 'incredibly detailed' picture shows parts of the Sculptor Galaxy that have never been seen before. Scientists were able to European Southern Observatory 's Very Large Telescope to create the most detailed image that shows thousands of colours ever made. It was created by observing the galaxy for 50 hours, and stitching together 100 exposures. The width of the image shows 65,000 light years across space, almost the full galaxy. The Sculptor Galaxy is officially known as NGC 254. It is a starburst galaxy, where stars are being constantly formed. The detail of the new image allows scientists to see the building blocks themselves – the stars, gas and dust – in fine detail. Each of them emits their own shade of light, so having it in such fine detail and colours means that scientists can deeply understand the small parts of what is happening in the galaxy. '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 co-author Kathryn Kreckel from Heidelberg University. Researchers can use those different shades to understand the age, composition and motion of the parts of the galaxy. "The Sculptor galaxy is in a sweet spot," the observatory's Enrico Congiu, who led the research, said in a statement. "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."
The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
Early humans adapted to extreme habitats. Researchers say it set the stage for global migration
Humans are the only animal that lives in virtually every possible environment, from rainforests to deserts to tundra. This adaptability is a skill that long predates the modern age. According to a new study published Wednesday in Nature, ancient Homo sapiens developed the flexibility to survive by finding food and other resources in a wide variety of difficult habitats before they dispersed from Africa about 50,000 years ago. 'Our superpower is that we are ecosystem generalists,' said Eleanor Scerri, an evolutionary archaeologist at the Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology in Jena, Germany. Our species first evolved in Africa around 300,000 years ago. While prior fossil finds show some groups made early forays outside the continent, lasting human settlements in other parts of the world didn't happen until a series of migrations around 50,000 years ago. 'What was different about the circumstance of the migrations that succeeded — why were humans ready this time?' said study co-author Emily Hallett, an archaeologist at Loyola University Chicago. Earlier theories held that Stone Age humans might have made a single important technological advance or developed a new way of sharing information, but researchers haven't found evidence to back that up. This study took a different approach by looking at the trait of flexibility itself. The scientists assembled a database of archaeological sites showing human presence across Africa from 120,000 to 14,000 years ago. For each site, researchers modeled what the local climate would have been like during the time periods that ancient humans lived there. 'There was a really sharp change in the range of habitats that humans were using starting around 70,000 years ago,' Hallet said. 'We saw a really clear signal that humans were living in more challenging and more extreme environments.' While humans had long survived in savanna and forests, they shifted into everything from from dense rainforests to arid deserts in the period leading up to 50,000 years ago, developing what Hallet called an "ecological flexibility that let them succeed.' While this leap in abilities is impressive, it's important not to assume that only Homo sapiens did it, said University of Bordeaux archaeologist William Banks, who was not involved in the research. Other groups of early human ancestors also left Africa and established long-term settlements elsewhere, including those that evolved into Europe's Neanderthals, he said. The new research helps explain why humans were ready to expand across the world way back when, he said, but it doesn't answer the lasting question of why only our species remains today. ___ The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
