Latest news with #CanesVenatici
Time of India
19-05-2025
- Science
- Time of India
Stunning photos of the Sunflower Galaxy caught on camera
Nothing about Messier 63 is understated. Even its nickname 'the Sunflower Galaxy' suggests a flourish, and the latest portrait released by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope proves the name is richly deserved. Draped across 50,000 light‑years, the flocculent spiral glows with tangled ribbons of starlight that unfurl from a butter‑yellow core like petals caught in a gentle breeze. The high‑resolution image, unveiled in March 2025 and now making the rounds on social media, invites both casual stargazers and professional astronomers to linger on a scene set 27 million light‑years away in the hunting‑dog constellation Canes Venatici . From Earth's vantage, the Sunflower Galaxy faces us nearly head‑on, offering a rare look into its layered anatomy. Unlike 'grand‑design' spirals such as the Whirlpool Galaxy , whose arms sweep out in textbook symmetry, M63 belongs to the far less orderly class of flocculent spirals. Its arms fragment into feathery clumps where interstellar dust and newborn blue‑white stars mingle. Infrared channels, combined here with visible‑light exposures, pierce the dusty knots and trace pink nebulas of ionized hydrogen that flag sites of ongoing star formation. The result is a chromatic patchwork: cobalt arcs where hot, massive stars have only recently ignited; amber lanes marking older stellar populations; and ruby halos glowing with the promise of future suns. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Giao dịch vàng với sàn môi giới tin cậy IC Markets Đăng ký Undo Astronomers prize flocculent spirals precisely because they break the mold. The fragmented structure challenges standard theories that rely on density waves to maintain well‑defined arms. By dissecting M63 in multiple wavelengths, researchers are testing alternative mechanisms, such as stochastic self‑propagation of star formation and local gravitational instabilities, that might knit together a flocculent pattern. Hubble's new view sharpens those tests by resolving individual clusters only a few hundred light‑years across. Early analysis indicates successive generations of star birth ripple outward from the bright nucleus, suggesting that feedback from supernovae and stellar winds may sculpt the galaxy's disheveled elegance. Yet the Sunflower Galaxy is not evolving in isolation. It sits inside the loose M51 Group and has likely danced past at least one smaller companion during its lifespan. Simulations show that even a glancing encounter can tug at a spiral's disk, triggering tidal shocks and compressing gas clouds into star‑forming knots—the very features Hubble now spotlights. Radio surveys add another layer of intrigue: a faint stream of neutral hydrogen appears to arc well beyond the visible disk, a telltale signature of past gravitational skirmishes. Whether current asymmetries in M63's arms are echoes of that encounter remains an active research question. The new image also arrives amid a blossoming era for public astrophotography. Just weeks after NASA's release, Canadian amateur Ronald Brecher published his own 13‑hour deep‑sky portrait that captures the same sunflower motif from a backyard observatory in Ontario. Using a 14‑inch telescope and narrowband filters, Brecher teased out the galaxy's ghost‑blue filaments and rusty dust lanes despite suburban light pollution. His success underscores an emerging synergy: space‑based observatories provide the scientific baseline, while ground‑based enthusiasts extend the narrative, often supplying context shots that reveal M63 adrift among foreground stars of the Milky Way. For skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere, May is prime time to hunt the cosmic bloom. The galaxy hovers between the orange giant Arcturus and the pointer star Dubhe in the Big Dipper's bowl, accessible through modest backyard telescopes as a faint, oval smudge. Under dark skies and with larger apertures, observers report hints of the sunflower's mottled texture. Astrophotographers recommend pairing broadband luminance frames with hydrogen‑alpha data to accentuate the ruddy star‑forming regions that pop in NASA's composite. Scientific allure aside, the Sunflower Galaxy taps a deeper, almost poetic fascination: it mirrors terrestrial life at a scale both incomprehensible and oddly familiar. The same Fibonacci instincts that sculpt the geometry of sunflowers on Earth seem echoed in the galaxy's whirl, hinting at universal patterns written into nature's code. When Hubble, launched in April 1990, was first proposed, engineers hoped it would show us 'the face of creation. ' Thirty‑five years later, its latest masterpiece fulfills that promise once more, stitching together ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light to weave a cosmic flower against the endless night. NASA's science team notes that the new dataset is already queued to follow up with the James Webb Space Telescope. Webb's superior infrared sensitivity will trace cooler dust cocoons where stars and planetary systems are gestating, potentially revealing how flocculent spirals seed their next generation of worlds. Coupled with Hubble's optical clarity, the two observatories form a time machine: Webb peers into embryonic regions while Hubble chronicles the adolescents and adults. Together they should clarify how turbulence, magnetic fields and gravity choreograph the sunflower's perpetual bloom. In releasing the image, NASA spokespeople emphasized an additional motive: inspiration. Public engagement campaigns invite users to pan across the high‑resolution frame online, zooming from the incandescent core outward to wispy tendrils that dissolve into intergalactic space. Each pixel is a time capsule, its light beginning the journey toward us when saber‑toothed cats still prowled North America. To gaze upon M63 today is therefore to span epochs, collapsing geologic history into a single moment of human curiosity. The Sunflower Galaxy reminds us that the universe, though vast and unfeeling, often arranges itself in forms we instinctively recognize as beautiful. It is a living laboratory for astrophysics and a canvas for cosmic art, a place where equations meet aesthetics, and where every new observation answers one question only to sow the seeds of many more. As we await Webb's deeper probe, Hubble's latest portrait stands as both data and invitation: look closer, wonder longer, and discover how the universe keeps inventing new ways to astonish.
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
Starwatch: Boötes, the herdsman ploughing the heavens
This week, we track down another prominent constellation in the northern hemisphere's spring night sky: Boötes, the herdsman. Listed as part of the 48 constellations described by Ptolemy in the 2nd century, it is now one of the International Astronomical Union's 88 official constellations. Although known as the herdsman, some stories associated with the constellation depict him as more of a ploughman, driving the constellation of Ursa Major, the great bear, around the pole. In these stories, Ursa Major is changed into an oxen and plough. The nearby constellation of Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs, is also said to be associated with Boötes. On many old star maps, he is depicted as holding these dogs on a leash. The chart shows the view looking south-east from London at 22.00BST on 19 May, although the view will remain essentially unchanged all week. The brightest star in Boötes is the red giant star Arcturus, which is the fourth brightest star in the night sky. Although it has about the same mass as our sun, it has swollen to 25 times its size and now pumps out around 170 times more light. Boötes is also visible from the southern hemisphere, where it will appear quite close to the northern horizon.
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Amateur astrophotographer captures a stunning galaxy 24 million light-years from Earth (photo)
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. Astrophotographer Ron Brecher has captured a stunning deep sky image of the spiral galaxy M106, located 23.5 million light years away in the constellation Canes Venatici. Brecher imaged the distant galaxy for a little over 32 hours on nights spanning from March 27 to April 17, 2025. The finished portrait reveals the swirling arms of M106 focussed around an active, red-hued galactic core - an active star-forming region that is home to a ravenous supermassive black hole. "M106 is classified as a Seyfert galaxy, meaning it has an active nucleus," explained Brecher in a post showcasing the image on his website. "It's thought that part of the galaxy is falling into a supermassive black hole near the center — it is sort of cannibalizing itself." While M106 is too faint to be spotted in the night sky with the naked eye, it is an excellent target to view with a small telescope, though as noted by NASA, a larger telescope would be needed to resolve fine details. To find M106 in the northern hemisphere, stargazers need only locate the Big Dipper asterism of Ursa Major, and use a stargazing app to find the bright star Alkaid, and dimmer Psi Ursae Majoris. M106 can be found around the half way point between these two stellar giants. TOP TELESCOPE PICK: Want to see galaxies in the night sky? The Celestron NexStar 4SE is ideal for beginners wanting quality, reliable and quick views of celestial objects. For a more in-depth look at our Celestron NexStar 4SE review. But M106 isn't the only galaxy in this image. "The other prominent galaxy, at the lower left, is NGC 4248," continued Brecher. "It also shows pink nebulae. There are many more galaxies in this image. Look for fuzzy patches and needle-like structures that look different from the sharp, round stars." Brecher wrote on his website that he never believed that he would get into astrophotography, but became captivated by the pursuit after buying a 4.5-inch reflector telescope for his son, and watching the night sky while soothing his then newborn daughter. His first forays into imaging the night sky saw Brecher capture the moon by holding a 'point and shoot' camera up to the eyepiece of his Celestron Ultima 200 Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope. He has since experimented with numerous cameras, mounts, scopes and software to image cosmic objects ranging from Earth's moon, to monstrous deep sky galaxies. Brecher's latest portrait of Messier 106 was captured from his home outside the Canadian city of Guelph using a Celestron 14" Edge HD telescope situated in a SkyShed enclosure - which, as the name suggests, is a purpose-built shed with a removable roof. Brecher processed the images he captured using a series of red, green, blue, and hydrogen-alpha filters with his CMOS QHY600M astronomy camera, before processing the resulting data using PixInsight software. If you're looking for a telescope or binoculars to observe galaxies like M106, our guides for the best binoculars deals and the best telescope deals now can help. Our guides on the best cameras for astrophotography and best lenses for astrophotography can also help you prepare to capture the next skywatching sight. Editor's note: If you want to share your astronomy photographs with our readers at please email it to spacephotos@
