| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Anne’s Picture of the Day: Starburst Galaxy NGC 1792
read more at Anne’s Astronomy News http://annesastronomynews.com/
January 28, 2013
NGC 1792, a starburst galaxy in Columba
Image Credit: ESO/P. Barthel
NGC 1792 is a barred spiral galaxy, located about 43 million light-years away from Earth in the south-western corner of the small southern constellation of Columba (the Dove), while it is moving away from us at 1211 – 1222 kilometers per second. It is a member of the NGC 1808 Group of Galaxies.
This bright, large oval-shaped galaxy has a large core with a very bright nucleus. It appears brighter along the western side of the major axis, with some areas of lower surface brightness what gives us a hint of its spiral structure. The mass of NGC 1792 is very close to 18 billion solar masses.
The optical appearance of this starburst galaxy is quite chaotic, due to the patchy distribution of dust throughout the disk of NGC 1792. It is very rich in neutral hydrogen gas – fuel for the formation of new stars – and is indeed rapidly forming such stars.
The galaxy is characterized by unusually luminous far-infrared radiation, due to dust heated by young stars.
This colour composite image is obtained with the FORS1 and FORS2 multi-mode instruments (at VLT MELIPAL and YEPUN, respectively). Note the numerous background galaxies in this sky field. North is up and East is to the left.
n/a
2013-01-28 05:05:58
Source: http://annesastronomynews.com/annes-picture-of-the-day-starburst-galaxy-ngc-1792/
Source:
