Explanation
of the above image: Centaurus A is the fifth brightest galaxy in the whole sky,
creating it a perfect aim for amateur astronomers, and is also well-known for
the dust track across its middle and a giant jet blasting away from a
supermassive black hole at its core. Centaurus A is an active galaxy and is about
12 million light years from Planet Earth.
The Chandra X-Ray Observatory lately
released four of the most spectacular pictures of galaxies. These four pictures
are the most spectacular pictures of galaxies that we've ever seen, but these
mind-blowing images couldn't have derived into reality without the help of
amateur photographers and astronomers.
According to the Chandra X-Ray
Observatory website, these four galaxy pictures came about because of an extraordinary
teamwork with unprofessional astrophotographers. Here are exact words of Chandra
X-Ray Observatory website:-
“What
happens when the work of amateur astronomers and astrophotographers is combined
with the data from some of the world's most sophisticated space telescopes?
Collaborations between professional and amateur astronomers reveal the
possibilities and are intended to raise interest and awareness among the
community of the wealth of data publicly available in NASA's various mission
archives. This effort is particularly appropriate for this month because April
marks Global Astronomy Month, the world's largest global celebration of
astronomy.
The
images in this quartet of galaxies represent a sample of composites created
with X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory, infrared data from the
Spitzer Space Telescope, and optical data collected by an amateur astronomer.
In these images, the X-rays from Chandra are shown in purple, infrared emission
from Spitzer is red, and the optical data are in red, green, and blue. The two
astrophotographers who donated their images for these four images — Detlef
Hartmann and Rolf Olsen — used their personal telescopes of 17.5 inches and 10
inches in diameter respectively. More details on how these images were made can
be found in this blog post.”
Take a look at three more stunning
galaxy images below, joining optical data from Spitzer's infrared data and
Hartmann and Olsen wiht Chandra's X-ray data:
M81 is a spiral galaxy and is
about 12 million light years away from planet Earth. It is both relatively
large in the sky and bright, creating it a common target for both professional astronomers’
amateur astronomers.
M101 is a spiral galaxy just like
our Milky Way Galaxy, but about 70% bigger than Milky Way. It is situated about
21 million light years from Planet Earth. Infrared data from Spitzer shows covered
in dust lanes in the galaxy where stars are developing, while optical data
traces the light from other stars.
M51 is one more spiral galaxy and
is about 30 million light years away from Planet Earth. M51 is in the course of
merging with a smaller galaxy seen to its upper left.
(If you find any error or miscalculation in
this article then please feel free to share in comment and if you want to
expand this article then comment below)