Galaxy NGC 1097, in the southern constellation of Fornax, the Furnace, doesn't have a common nickname like some other galaxies, but this rather beautiful barred spiral takes on a different character when you zoom in on its centre, as the ERIS (Enhanced Resolution Imager and Spectrograph) infrared camera at the VLT (Very Large Telescope) in Chile did to take its inaugural image.
From a distance of 45 million lightyears, we can see an active galaxy with a quasar-like core, which is also interacting with a companion. Three supernovae have also been observed in the galaxy since 1992. The ring of bright star-forming regions that has formed around the supermassive black hole at its centre is sending gas and dust inwards. The motion of this material causes new stars to form in the ring, which is 5,000 lightyears across but takes up a portion of the sky less than 0.03 per cent the size of the full Moon.
Sun spotted
DANIEL K INOUYE SOLAR TELESCOPE, 5 SEPTEMBER 2022
Denne historien er fra February 2023-utgaven av BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
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Denne historien er fra February 2023-utgaven av BBC Sky at Night Magazine.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Could We Find Aliens by Looking for Their Solar Panels?- Designed to reflect ultraviolet and infrared, the panels have a unique fingerprint
Researchers searching for life beyond Earth spend a lot of time thinking about what telltale signs might be detectable astronomically. Forms of unambiguous evidence for the presence of life on another world are known as biosignatures. By extension, techno signatures are indicators of activity by intelligent, civilisation-building life.
Antimatter- In our continuing series, Govert Schilling looks at antimatter, the strange counterpart to most of the matter filling our Universe
Particles and corresponding antiparticles are very much alike, except they have opposite electrical charges. For instance, the antiparticle of the electron - known as the positron - has the same tiny mass, but while electrons carry a negative electrical charge, positrons are positively charged.
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The Big Bang produced a Universe filled almost exclusively with hydrogen and helium; all other elements - what astronomers call metals - were produced by stars, supernovae and everything that happens later. So if you can pick out a pristine star with no metals polluting it from among the billions in the Milky Way, then you are likely to have a star dating from our Galaxy's earliest days.
Inside The Sky At Night - Two years ago, exoplanet scientist Hannah Wakeford received some of the first data from the JWST
Two years ago, exoplanet scientist Hannah Wakeford received some of the first data from the JWST. In July's Sky at Night, we discovered what she's learned since then.
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