Galaxies in the River
Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler, Jan-Erik Ovaldsen, Allan Hornstrup, IDA
Image data: ESO/Danish 1.5m telescope at La Silla, Chile - 2008
Posted on 11/27/2008 4:22:33 AM PST by sig226
Explanation: Large galaxies grow by eating small ones. Even our own galaxy practices galactic cannibalism, absorbing small galaxies that get too close and are captured by the Milky Way's gravity. In fact, the practice is common in the universe and well illustrated by this striking pair of interacting galaxies from the banks of the southern constellation Eridanus (The River). Located over 50 million light years away, the large, distorted spiral NGC 1532 is seen locked in a gravitational struggle with dwarf galaxy NGC 1531, a struggle the smaller galaxy will eventually lose. Seen edge-on, spiral NGC 1532 spans about 100,000 light-years. The NGC 1532/1531 pair is thought to be similar to the system of face-on spiral and small companion known as M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy.
Awesome.
Beautiful.
NGC-2174:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0612/NGC2174_lrg.jpg
M-42:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0601/m42_hst_f.jpg
Orion Cradle:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0701/orioncradle_hallas_r.jpg
Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080406.html
Markarian's Eyes:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0706/NGC4438_NGC4435_crawford_r.jpg
Carina Nebula Panorama from Hubble:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0704/carina_hst_big.jpg
Bullet Pillars in Orion:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0703/bullets_gemini_big.jpg
The Rosette Nebula:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0702/rosette_gendler_big.jpg
For individual descriptions of these images, go to the APOD archive page and run a search on the selected image's title:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
Just ponderin this morning.
Since we’re at the edge of our galaxy, it seems to me that much of our view of the universe is blocked by the dense center of our galaxy. Our orbit around the center of our galaxy takes some 200 million years so it seems to me that there’s a huge portion of our universe that remains unseen.
There is a lodestar in there somewhere. (Extra credit for using the “word of the day”.
I want to take a moment to thank you for making these beautiful images available on FR.
Blessed Thanksgiving to you and yours.
What a beautiful sight. How arrogant are those who believe that something so awesome just “happened” on it’s own without intevention of the Almighty.
Amen! I am into making large format prints, upwards of five feet to a side and love to take some of the pictures posted here and make large posters of them. My wife gets really irritated when I use our limited retirement income for making large prints that no one buys. I usually just give them away. My granddaughter gets a lot of them for her third grade class to discuss.
I've compromised with the wife and try to hold my printing down to no bigger than 16x20, sometimes 20x30, but it's an effort. I am a professional freelance photographer and do large format prints of some of my paid shoots, but most I just like making big, pretty prints of things that reassure me of God's existence!
Is that a tool bag, in the lower left corner?
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