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Spiral Galaxy NGC 2403 from …
Title Spiral Galaxy NGC 2403 from Subaru
Explanation Sprawling spiral arms dotted with bright red emission nebulas [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/emission_nebulae.html ] highlight this new and detailed image of nearby spiral galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/spiral_galaxies.html ] NGC 2403. Also visible in the photogenic spiral galaxy [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_galaxy ] are blue open clusters [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/open_clusters.html ], dark dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030706.html ] lanes [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020620.html ], and a bright but relatively small central nucleus [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001220.html ]. NGC 2403 is located just beyond the Local Group of Galaxies [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_group ], at a relatively close 10 million light years away toward the constellation [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/constellations.html ] of the Giraffe [ http://www.kidsplanet.org/factsheets/giraffe.html ] (Camelopardalis [ http://www.astronomical.org/portal/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=11 ]). NGC 2403 has a designated Hubble type [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_sequence ] of Sc. In 2004, NGC 2403 was home to one of the brightest supernovas [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040907.html ] of modern times. The above image [ http://subarutelescope.org/Pressrelease/2005/10/13/index.html ], the highest resolution complete image of NGC 2403 ever completed, was taken by the Japan [ http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ja.html ]'s 8.3-meter Subaru telescope [ http://www.schoolsobservatory.org.uk/astro/textb/tele/world/subaru.htm ] located on Mauna Kea [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051220.html ], Hawaii [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii ], USA [ http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/USclimate/states.fast.html ].
Hidden Galaxy IC 342
Title Hidden Galaxy IC 342
Explanation Similar [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060707.html ] in size to other large, bright spiral galaxies IC 342 [ http://www.seds.org/~spider/spider/LG/i0342.html ] is a mere 7 million light-years distant in the long-necked, northern constellation Camelopardalis [ http://www.coldwater.k12.mi.us/lms/planetarium/myth/ camelopardalis.html ]. A sprawling island universe [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051222.html ], IC 342 would otherwise be a prominent galaxy in our night sky [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060413.html ], but it is almost hidden from view behind the veil of stars, gas and dust clouds in the plane of our Milky Way galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060801.html ]. Even though IC 342's light is dimmed by intervening cosmic clouds [ http://www-ssg.sr.unh.edu/ism/what1.html ], this remarkably sharp telescopic image [ http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/IC342NM.html ] traces the galaxy's own obscuring dust, blue star clusters, and glowing pink star forming regions along spiral arms that wind far from the galaxy's core. IC 342 [ http://www.astro.spbu.ru/staff/dio/IC342/IC342E.html ] may have undergone a recent burst [ http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0305552 ] of star formation activity and is close enough [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/xtra/ngc/ maffei1g.html ] to have gravitationally influenced the evolution of the local group [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/more/local.html ] of galaxies and the Milky Way.
Kemble's Cascade
Title Kemble's Cascade
Explanation A picturesque chain of unrelated stars is visible with strong binoculars towards the constellation [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/constellations.html ] of Camelopardalis [ http://www.astronomical.org/constellations/cam.html ]. Known as Kemble's Cascade [ http://www.agt.net/public/fenertyb/KmbCsc08.html ], the asterism [ http://www.seds.org/Maps/Const/asterism.html ] contains about 20 stars [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/lib/glossary.html#star ] nearly in a row stretching over five times the width of a full moon [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991108.html ]. Made popular by astronomy enthusiast Lucian Kemble [ http://www.jps.net/davestea/Lucian/LucianAutoBio.htm ] (1922-1999), these stars appear as a string only from our direction in the Milky Way Galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/milky_way.html ]. The above photograph [ http://www.starlightccd.com/walter/picturebook/constellation/kemble's_cascade.htm ] of Kemble's Cascade [ http://www.jps.net/davestea/Lucian/KemblesCasc.htm ] was made with a small telescope in New Mexico [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000814.html http://www.state.nm.us/ ], USA [ http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/us.html ]. The bright object near the bottom left is the relatively compact open cluster [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/open_clusters.html ] of stars known as NGC 1502 [ http://www.dibonsmith.com/ngc1502.htm ].
Alpha Cam: Runaway Star
Title Alpha Cam: Runaway Star
Explanation Runaway stars [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runaway_star ] are massive stars traveling rapidly through interstellar space. Like a ship plowing through cosmic seas, runaway star Alpha Cam has [ http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/~kaler/sow/alphacam.html ] produced this graceful arcing bow wave or bow shock [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010221.html ] - moving at over 60 kilometers per "second" and compressing the interstellar material [ http://www-ssg.sr.unh.edu/ism/what1.html ] in its path. The bright star above [ http://www.galaxyimages.com/AlphaCam.html ] and left of center in this wide (3x2 degree) view, Alpha Cam is about 25-30 times as massive as the Sun, 5 times hotter (30,000 kelvins), and over 500,000 times brighter. About 4,000 light-years away in the long-necked constellation Camelopardalis [ http://www.coldwater.k12.mi.us/lms/planetarium/ myth/camelopardalis.html ], the star also produces a strong wind. The bow shock stands off about 10 light-years from the star itself. What set this star in motion [ http://www.abc.net.au/science/k2/moments/s223732.htm ]? Astronomers have long thought that Alpha Cam was flung out of a nearby cluster of young hot stars due to gravitational interactions with other cluster members or perhaps by the supernova explosion [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050910.html ] of a massive companion star.
BZ Cam Bow Shock
Title BZ Cam Bow Shock
Explanation BZ Cam is a binary star system [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap991219.html ] that is not well understood. In most cataclysmic variables [ http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l2/cataclysmic_variables.html ], matter from a normal star [ http://www.astro.umd.edu/education/astro/stev/main_seq.html ] accumulates on the surface of the companion white dwarf [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/white_dwarfs.html ] star, eventually causing a nova [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap970925.html ]-like flare as the material becomes hot enough to ignite nuclear fusion [ http://www.sciam.com/specialissues/0398cosmos/0398starrfield.html ]. In BZ Cam [ http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJ/journal/issues/v115n1/970389/970389.html ], however, light appears to flicker unpredictably, and an unusually large wind [ http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/Education/wsolwind.html ] of particles is being expelled. Pictured above [ http://www.to.astro.it/Orio/uno.html ], BZ Cam [ http://www.kusastro.kyoto-u.ac.jp/vsnet/VSOLJ/1995/index/CAMBZ.html ]'s wind creates a large bow-shock [ http://www.windows.ucar.edu/glossary/bow_shock.html ] as the system moves through surrounding interstellar gas [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap000411.html ]. BZ Cam [ http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1996AJ....111.2422P ] lies about 2500 light-years [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html ] away toward the constellation [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/constellations.html ] of Camelopardalis [ http://www.astronomical.org/constellations/cam.html ].
Hidden Galaxy IC 342 from Ki …
Title Hidden Galaxy IC 342 from Kitt Peak
Explanation Beautiful nearby spiral galaxy IC 342 could be more famous if it wasn't so hidden. A sprawling island universe [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap051222.html ], IC 342 would be a prominent galaxy in our night sky [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060413.html ], but it is almost hidden from view behind the veil of stars, gas and dust clouds in the plane of our Milky Way galaxy [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060801.html ]. Similar [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060707.html ] in size to other large, bright spiral galaxies IC 342 [ http://www.seds.org/~spider/spider/LG/i0342.html ] is a mere 7 million light-years [ http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question19.html ] distant in the long-necked, northern constellation of the Giraffe (Camelopardalis [ http://www.coldwater.k12.mi.us/lms/planetarium/myth/ camelopardalis.html ]). Even though IC 342's light is dimmed by intervening cosmic clouds [ http://www-ssg.sr.unh.edu/ism/what1.html ], this remarkably sharp telescopic image [ http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im1032.html ] traces the galaxy's own obscuring dust [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070606.html ], blue star clusters [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071118.html ], and glowing pink star forming region [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap070506.html ]s along spiral arms that wind far from the galaxy's core [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap041227.html ]. IC 342 [ http://www.astro.spbu.ru/staff/dio/IC342/IC342E.html ] may have undergone a recent burst [ http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0305552 ] of star formation activity and is close enough [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/xtra/ngc/ maffei1g.html ] to have gravitationally influenced the evolution of the local group [ http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/messier/more/local.html ] of galaxies and the Milky Way.
NGC 1569: Heavy Elements fro …
Title NGC 1569: Heavy Elements from a Small Galaxy
Explanation For astronomers, elements other than hydrogen [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010113.html ] and helium [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010120.html ] are sometimes considered to be simply "heavy elements". It's understandable really, because even lumped all together heavy elements make up an exceedingly small fraction [ http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/sun/ composition.html ] of the Universe. Still, heavy elements can profoundly influence galaxy and star formation ... not to mention [ http://www.europhysicsnews.com/full/14/article1/ article1.html ] the formation of planets and people. In this tantalizing [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2002/1060/index.html ] false-color x-ray image from the orbiting Chandra Observatory [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/about/whereis.html ], small dwarf galaxy NGC 1569 [ http://www.seds.org/~spider/ngc/ngc.cgi?1569 ] is surrounded by x-ray emitting [ http://chandra.harvard.edu/xray_astro/ ] clouds of gas thousands of light-years across. The gas has recently been observed [ http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0203513 ] to contain significant concentrations of astronomers' heavy elements such as oxygen, silicon, and magnesium, supporting the idea that dwarf galaxies, the most common type of galaxy in the Universe [ http://www.anzwers.org/free/ universe/galgrps.html ], are largely responsible for heavy elements in intergalactic space. A mere 7 million light-years distant toward the long-necked [ http://www.nature-wildlife.com/girtxt.htm ] constellation Camelopardalis [ http://www.dibonsmith.com/cam_con.htm ], NGC 1569 has undergone a recent burst of star formation and stellar supernova explosions [ http://curious.astro.cornell.edu/ supernovae.php ]. The furious cosmic activity [ http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/xmm_lc/edu/ lessons/background-lifecycles.html ] has heated the expanding gas clouds to temperatures of millions of degrees while enriching them with newly synthesized [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap011026.html ] heavy elements.
NGC 1569: Starburst in a Sma …
Title NGC 1569: Starburst in a Small Galaxy
Explanation Grand spiral galaxies [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030524.html ] often seem to get all the glory, flaunting their young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful, symmetric spiral [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030925.html ] arms. But small, irregular [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap010804.html ] galaxies form stars too. In fact, as pictured here [ http://hubble.esa.int/science-e/www/object/ index.cfm?fobjectid=34594 ], dwarf galaxy NGC 1569 is apparently undergoing a burst of star forming activity, thought to have begun over 25 million years ago. The resulting turbulent environment [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020725.html ] is fed by supernova explosions as the cosmic detonations spew out material and trigger further star formation. Two massive star clusters - youthful counterparts to globular star clusters [ http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/supp/mw_gc.html ] in our own spiral Milky Way [ http://www.anzwers.org/free/universe/ galaxy.html ] galaxy - are seen left of center in the gorgeous Hubble Space Telescope [ http://hubblesite.org ] image. The picture spans about 1,500 light-years across NGC 1569. A mere 7 million light-years distant, this relatively close starburst galaxy offers astronomers an excellent opportunity to study [ http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0309153 ] stellar populations in rapidly evolving galaxies. NGC 1569 lies in the long-necked [ http://www.nature-wildlife.com/girtxt.htm ] constellation Camelopardalis [ http://www.dibonsmith.com/cam_con.htm ].
A Supernova in Nearby Galaxy …
Title A Supernova in Nearby Galaxy NGC 2403
Explanation The closest and brightest supernova in over a decade was recorded [ http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/09/02_TypeIISN.shtml ] just over a month ago in the outskirts of nearby galaxy NGC 2403. Officially tagged SN 2004dj [ http://www.rochesterastronomy.org//sn2004/sn2004dj.html ], the Type IIP [ http://www2.arnes.si/~gljsentvid10/supn1.html ] explosion likely annihilated most of a blue supergiant star [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap001222.html ] as central fusion [ http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~js/ast122/lectures/lec14.html ] could no longer hold it up [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/gifcity/msblues.html ]. The supernova [ http://heasarc.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/snr.html ] can be seen as the bright object in the above image [ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/newsdesk/archive/releases/2004/23/ ] in the direction of the arrow. The home galaxy to the supernova, spiral galaxy NGC 2403 [ http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/ngc/n2403.html ], is located only 11 million light years [ http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question19.html ] away and is visible with binoculars toward the northern constellation [ http://www.astro.wisc.edu/~dolan/constellations/extra/constellations.html ] of Camelopardalis [ http://www.astronomical.org/portal/modules/wfsection/article.php?articleid=11 ] (the Giraffe [ http://www.kidsplanet.org/factsheets/giraffe.html ]). The supernova is fading [ http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/supernova.html ] but still visible with a telescope, once peaking at just brighter than magnitude [ http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/stars/magnitudes.html ] 12. Supernovas [ http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/lists/Supernovae.html ] of this type change brightness in a predictable way and may be searched for in the distant universe [ http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040309.html ] as distance indicators.
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