VLT Observes the Antennae Galaxies
This VLT view focuses instead on the galaxies’ nuclei, where the real action is taking place as the two galaxies merge into a single giant galaxy. Spurred by shock waves created by their gravitational wrestling, the two galaxies have become dotted with brilliant blue hot young stars in star-forming regions, surrounded by glowing hydrogen gas, shown here in pink. The two pale yellow blobs are the cores of the original galaxies, shining with the light of old stars and picked out by delicate lanes of dust.
The Antennae Galaxies were immortalised in 2006 by one of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s most famous images (composed by ESA’s Hubble group residing at ESO).
If you are hungry for more information about this amazing object, read the just-published ESO press release about the first image from ALMA, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, which has just started its Early Science observations. ALMA , constructed by ESO and its international partners, observes the Universe in light with millimetre and submillimetre wavelengths — radically different from visible-light and infrared telescopes. ALMA’s view is the best submillimetre-wavelength image ever made of the Antennae Galaxies, despite being just a taster of what ALMA will deliver. The ALMA image was made using test data from only twelve antennas, and as the observatory grows, the sharpness, efficiency, and quality of its observations will increase dramatically.Relevantní obrázky
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Tykadla (galaxie)Galaxie Tykadla jsou dvojice interagujících galaxií v souhvězdí Havrana vzdálená přibližně 70 milionů světelných let. Objevil ji britský astronom William Herschel 7. února 1785. V současnosti prochází obdobím prudké tvorby hvězd, která je způsobena srážkami mračen plynů a prachu v propletených magnetických polích. Galaxie jsou v atlasu pekuliárních galaxií označeny jako Arp 244. .. pokračovat ve čtení