* Astronomy

NGC 4945: The Milky Way's not-so-distant Cousin ESO has released a striking new image of a nearby galaxy that many astronomers think closely resembles our own Milky Way. Though the galaxy is seen edge-on, observations of NGC 4945 suggest that this hive of stars is a spiral galaxy much like our own, wi...

Title: A Suzaku Observation of NGC 4593: Illuminating the Truncated Disk Authors: A. Markowitz (1), J. N. Reeves (2) We report results from a 2007 Suzaku observation of the Seyfert 1 AGN NGC 4593. The narrow Fe K alpha emission line has a FWHM width ~4000 km/s, indicating emission from >~ 5000 Rg. T...

Title: C stars in the outer spheroid of NGC 6822 Authors: S. Demers, P. Battinelli, E. Artigau From a 2 x 2 degree survey of NGC 6822 researchers have previously established that this Local Group dwarf irregular galaxy possesses a huge spheroid having more than one degree in le...

Frantic activity revealed in dusty stellar factories Thanks to the Very Large Telescope's acute and powerful near-infrared eye, astronomers have uncovered a host of new young, massive and dusty stellar nurseries in nearby galaxy NGC 253. The centre of this galaxy appears to harbour a twin of our o...

Title: Detection of the Buried AGN in NGC 6240 with the Infrared Spectrograph on the Spitzer Space Telescope Authors: L. Armus, J. Bernard-Salas, H.W.W. Spoon, J.A. Marshall, V. Charmandaris, S.J.U. Higdon, V. Desai, L. Hao, H.I. Teplitz, D. Devost, B.R. Brandl, B.T. Soifer, J.R. Ho...

Title: H\alpha kinematics of KPG 390 Authors: P. Repetto, M. Rosado, R. Gabbasov I. Fuentes-Carrera In this work we present scanning Fabry-Perot H\alpha observations of the isolated interacting galaxy pair NGC 5278/79 obtained with the PUMA Fabry-Perot interferometer. We derived velocity fi...

Near-infrared images of the active galaxy NGC 1097, obtained with the NACO adaptive optics instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope, disclose with unprecedented detail a complex central network of filamentary structure spiralling down to the centre of the galaxy. These observations p...

This Hubble Space Telescope image of the face-on spiral galaxy Messier 101 (NGC 4547, The Pinwheel Galaxy), is the largest and most detailed photo of a spiral galaxy that has ever been released from Hubble. The galaxy’s portrait is actually composed of 51 individual exposures ta...

Title: LCDM Satellites and HI Companions - The Arecibo ALFA Survey of NGC 2903 Authors: J. A. Irwin, G. L. Hoffman, K. Spekkens, M. P. Haynes, R. Giovanelli, S. M. Linder, B. Catinella, E. Momjian, B. S. Koribalski, J. Davies, E. Brinks, W. J. G. de Blok, M. E. Putman, W. van Driel We have conducted a deep...

A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures what appears to be one very bright and bizarre galaxy, but is actually the result of a pair of spiral galaxies that resemble our own Milky Way smashing together at breakneck speeds. The product of this dramatic collision, called NGC 2623, or Ar...

Zoom dans la galaxie NGC 4921 Click to Play | View Details

The combination of images taken by three exceptional telescopes: the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the ESO Very Large Telescope on Cerro Paranal, the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO's La Silla observatory has allowed the stunning Jewel Box star cluster to be seen in a whole new light. Star c...

Title: Mass Outflow in the Seyfert 1 Galaxy NGC 5548 Authors: D.M. Crenshaw, S.B. Kraemer, H.R. Schmitt, J.S. Kaastra, N. Arav, J.R. Gabel, K.T. Korista We present a study of the intrinsic UV absorption and emission lines in an historically low-state spectrum of the Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 5548, which...

Title: The Araucaria Project. The Distance to the Sculptor Group Galaxy NGC 55 from a Newly Discovered Abundant Cepheid Population Authors: G. Pietrzynski, W. Gieren, I. Soszynski, A. Udalski, F. Bresolin, R.-P. Kudritzki, R. Mennickent, A. Walker, A. Garcia, O. Szewczyk, M....

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/R. Tuellmann et al.; Optical: NASA/AURA/STScI A new study unveils NGC 604, the largest region of star formation in the nearby galaxy M33, in its first deep, high-resolution view in X-rays. This composite image from Chandra X-ray Observatory data (colored blue), com...

A spectacular new image of an unusual spiral galaxy in the Coma Galaxy Cluster has been created from data taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It reveals fine details of the galaxy, NGC 4921, as well as an extraordinary rich background of more remote galaxi...

Title: Aperture Synthesis Observations of the Nearby Spiral NGC 6503: Modelling the Thin and Thick HI Disks Authors: Eric W. Greisen, Kristine Spekkens, Gustaaf A. van Moorsel We present sensitive aperture synthesis observations of the nearby, late-type spiral galaxy NGC 6503, and produce HI m...

Title: Merging Cold Fronts in the Galaxy Pair NGC 7619 and NGC 7626 Authors: S. W. Randall, C. Jones, R. Kraft, W. R. Forman, E. O'Sullivan (Version v2) We present results from {\it Chandra} observations of the galaxy pair NGC 7619 and NGC 7626, the two dominant members of the Pegasus group. The X-ray i...

Title: Distance to NGC 0247 Authors: Barry F. Madore, Wendy L. Freedman, J. Catanzarite, Mauricio Navarrete We report VRI CCD observations of nine Cepheids in the South Polar (Sculptor) Group spiral galaxy NGC 0247. Periods of these Cepheids range from 20 to 70 days. Over the past 20 years the very b...

NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer has lifted the veil off a ghost known to haunt the local universe, providing new insight into the formation and evolution of galaxies. The eerie creature, called NGC 404, is a type of galaxy known as "lenticular." Lenticular galaxies are disk-shaped, w...

Title: Chandra evidence for AGN feedback in the spiral galaxy NGC 6764 Authors: J.H. Croston, M.J. Hardcastle, P. Kharb, R.P. Kraft, A. Hota (Version v2) We report the Chandra detection of X-ray emission spatially coincident with the kpc-scale radio bubbles in the nearby (D_L ~ 31 Mpc) AGN-starbu...

Chandra Sees Remarkable Eclipse of Black Hole Chandra observations of the galaxy NGC 1365 have captured a remarkable eclipse of the supermassive black hole at its centre. A dense cloud of gas passed in front of the black hole, which blocked h...

In what appears to be a masterful illusion, astronomers at Gemini Observatory have imaged two nearly identical spiral galaxies in Virgo, 90 million light years distant, in the early stages of a gentle gravitational embrace. The new image was obtained at the Gemini South telescope in Chile using GM...

Title: Lopsided galaxies: the case of NGC 891 Authors: M. Mapelli (1), B. Moore (1), J. Bland-Hawthorn (2) ((1) University of Zürich, (2) University of Sydney) It has been known for a long time that a large fraction of disc galaxies are lopsided. We simulate three different mechanisms that can induc...

Title: Strong magnetic spiral pattern in a ringed galaxy NGC4736 Authors: Krzysztof T. Chyzy (Jagiell. Univ.), Ronald J. Buta (Univ. of Alabama) We present high sensitivity radio polarimetric (VLA) observations of a galaxy with strong orbital resonances - NGC4736. The total radio intensity at...

Title: Where are the massive stars of the bar of NGC 1530 forming? Authors: A. Zurita (U. Granada), I. Perez (U. Groningen & U. Granada) Aims: NGC 1530 has one of the strongest bars ever observed and recent star formation sites are distributed across its bar. Our aim is to study the photometric pro...

Title: Study of the HII regions in the spiral galaxy NGC6384 Authors: A. A. Hakobyan, A. R. Petrosian, A. A. Yeghiazaryan, J. Boulesteix The galaxy NGC6384 has been observed with an IPCS through H alpha and [NII] narrow-band interference filters for direct imagery with the 2.6 m Byurakan telescope...

The elliptical galaxy NGC 1132 reveals the final result of what may have been a group of galaxies that merged together in the recent past. Another possibility is that the galaxy formed in isolation as a "lone wolf" in a universe ablaze with galaxy groups and clusters. This image of NGC 1132...

Title: The pseudobulge of NGC 1292 Authors: L. Morelli (1), E. Pompei (2), A. Pizzella (1), J. Méndez-Abreu (1), (3), E. M. Corsini (1), L. Coccato (4), R. P. Saglia (4), M. Sarzi (5), F. Bertola (1) ((1) Dipartimento di Astronomia, Università di Padova, (2) European Southern Observatory, (3) INAF-...

Title: The Parsec-scale Accretion Disk in NGC 3393 Authors: Paul T. Kondratko, Lincoln J. Greenhill, James M. Moran We present a Very Long Baseline Interferometry image of the water maser emission in the nuclear region of NGC3393. The maser emission has a linear distribution oriented at a positio...

What do you call an absence of darkness? Dark matter is supposed to be spread throughout the universe, but a new study reports a spiral galaxy that seems to be empty of the stuff, and astrophysicists cannot easily explain why. In the outer regions of most galaxies, stars orbit around the centre so fast...

Title: Discovery of a Giant Stellar Tidal Stream Around the Disk Galaxy NGC 4013 Authors: David Martinez-Delgado (1,2), Michael Pohlen (3), R. Jay Gabany (4), Steven R. Majewski (5), Jorge Penarrubia (6), Chris Palma (7) ((1) Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias E, (2) Max-Planck Institut fuer A...

Astronomers are puzzling over a spiral galaxy whose spiral arms are wrapped in opposing directions. The unusual structure may be a lingering scar from a tussle with a smaller galaxy that was ultimately swallowed. Before astronomers had studied this unusual spiral galaxy, called NGC 4622, they th...

Title: The Active Nucleus of IC4970: A Nearby Example of Merger-Induced Cold-Gas Accretion Authors: M.E. Machacek, R.P. Kraft, M.L.N. Ashby, D.A. Evans, C. Jones, W.R. Forman (CfA) (Version v2) We present results from Chandra X-ray and Spitzer mid-infrared observations of the interacting gal...

During his visit to ESO's Very Large Telescope at Paranal, the European Commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Potocnik, participated in an observing sequence and took images of a beautiful spiral galaxy. The visit took place on 27 October and the Commissioner observed with one of the FORS i...

Title: HI power spectrum of the spiral galaxy NGC628 Authors: Prasun Dutta (IIT, KGP), Ayesha Begum (IoA, Cambridge), Somnath Bharadwaj (IIT, KGP), Jayaram N. Chengalur (NCRA, TIFR) We have measured the HI power spectrum of the nearly face-on spiral galaxy NGC628 (M74) using a visibility based e...

Title: Compact Stellar Systems around NGC 1399 Authors: P. Firth, M.J. Drinkwater, E.A. Evstigneeva, M.D. Gregg, A. Karick, J.B. Jones, S. Phillipps We have obtained spectroscopic redshifts of colour-selected point sources in four wide area VLT-FLAMES fields around the Fornax Cluster giant e...

Title: The Black Hole Mass and Extreme Orbital Structure in NGC1399 Authors: Karl Gebhardt, Tod R. Lauer, Jason Pinkney, Ralf Bender, Douglas Richstone, Monique Aller, Gary Bower, Alan Dressler, Sandra Faber, Alexei Filippenko, Richard Green, Luis Ho, John Kormendy, Christos Siopis, Scott Tr...

Title: Spitzer Observations of Transient, Extended Dust in Two Elliptical Galaxies: New Evidence of Recent Feedback Energy Release in Galactic Cores Authors: Pasquale Temi, Fabrizio Brighenti, William G. Mathews Spitzer observations of extended dust in two optically normal elliptical gala...

Title: The Black Hole Mass of NGC 4151: Comparison of Reverberation Mapping and Stellar Dynamical Measurements Authors: Christopher A. Onken, Monica Valluri, Bradley M. Peterson, Richard W. Pogge, Misty C. Bentz, Laura Ferrarese, Marianne Vestergaard, D. Michael Crenshaw, Sergey G. Sergeev...

Title: Star Formation in NGC 5194 (M51a). II. The Spatially-Resolved Star Formation Law Authors: Robert C. Kennicutt Jr., Daniela Calzetti, Fabian Walter, George Helou, David J. Hollenbach, Lee Armus, George Bendo, Daniel A. Dale, Bruce T. Draine, Charles W. Engelbracht, Karl D. Gordon, Moire...

Title: Seven-color Vilnius photometry of the open cluster NGC 752 Authors: S. Bartasiute, V. Deveikis, V. Straizys, A. Bogdanovicius (Version v2) New photoelectric seven-colour observations in the Vilnius system are presented for 65 stars in the region of the open cluster NGC 752. Based on indi...

Title: uvby--beta photoelectric photometry of NGC 7063 Authors: J.H. Pena, L. Fox Machado, R. Garrido From uvby photometry of 75 stars in the direction of NGC 7063 we were able to determine membership of some stars and fix the distance (722 ± 105 pc), log age (of 8.146) and reddening (E(b-y) = 0.091 ± 0...

Title: NGC 4254: An Act of Harassment Uncovered by the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA Survey Authors: Martha P. Haynes, Riccardo Giovanelli, Brian R. Kent We present an HI map constructed from the Arecibo Legacy Fast ALFA (ALFALFA) survey of the surroundings of the strongly asymmetric Virgo cluster Sc g...

NGC 5135 is a barred spiral, similar in some ways to NGC 1365. Both galaxies are members of the IRAS "Bright Galaxy Sample," meaning that they are very luminous in the infrared as a result of vigorous star-forming activity. Both have very strong bars. Both harbor an active galactic nucl...

Title: A deep Chandra look at the low L_B elliptical NGC821: X-ray binaries, a galactic wind and emission at the nucleus Authors: S. Pellegrini (1), A. Baldi (2), D.W. Kim (2), G. Fabbiano (2), R. Soria (2,3), A. Siemiginowska (2), M. Elvis (2) ((1) Astronomy Dept., Bologna University, Italy; (2) Ha...

Nearly 12.5 million light-years away in the dwarf galaxy NGC 4449 a veritable stellar "fireworks" is on display here shown in exquisite detail through the eyes of the Hubble Space Telescope. Hundreds of thousands of vibrant blue and red stars are visible in this new image of galaxy NGC 44...

Two objects discovered in Capricornus during the 1800s are a pair of colliding galaxies, say astronomers in California and Spain. Furthermore, the collision probably spawned much of the larger galaxy's splendour. NGC 6907 is a beau...

This NASA Hubble Space Telescope view of the nearby barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672 unveils details in the galaxys star-forming clouds and dark bands of interstellar dust. NGC 1672 is more than 60 million light-years away in the direction of the southern constellation Dorado. These observations of...

Title: NGC 5011C: an overlooked dwarf galaxy in the Centaurus A group Authors: Ivo Saviane (1), Helmut Jerjen (2) ((1) ESO, (2) Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, The Australian National University, Mt Stromlo Observatory) We report the discovery of a previously unno...

Title: A deep Chandra look at the low L_B elliptical NGC821: not only wind and X-ray binaries Authors: S. Pellegrini (1), A. Baldi (2), D.W. Kim (2), G. Fabbiano (2), R. Soria (2,3), A. Siemiginowska (2), M. Elvis (2) ((1) Astronomy Dept., Bologna University, Italy; (2) Harvard-Smithsonian Center...

VLT Image of Starburst Galaxy NGC 1313 The captivating appearance of this image of the starburst galaxy NGC 1313, taken with the FORS instrument at ESO's Very Large Telescope, belies its inner turmoil. The dense clustering of bright stars and gas in its arms, a sign of an ongoing boom of sta...

The clearest most complete image to date of the spiral galaxy NGC 2403 was taken by the Subaru Telescope, using its Suprime-Cam. NGC 2403, at a distance of 10 million light years in the constellation Camelopardalis, is a Sc type galaxy, which has open spiral arms and a small nucleus...

Title: The 15 - 20 Micron Spitzer Spectra of Interstellar Emission Features in NGC 7023 Authors: K. Sellgren (Ohio State), K. I. Uchida (JPL), M. W. Werner (JPL) We present 15 - 20 micron long-slit spectra, from the Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on Spitzer, of NGC 7023. We obser...

VLT Enables Most Accurate Distance Measurement to Spiral Galaxy NGC 300 Cepheid pulsating stars have been used as distance indicators since the early discovery of Henrietta Leavitt almost a hundred years ago. From her photographic data regarding one of the Milky Way's neigh...

Title: The Star Formation History of the Virgo early-type galaxy NGC4435: the Spitzer Mid Infrared view Authors: P. Panuzzo (1), O. Vega (2), A. Bressan (1,2,4), L. Buson (1), M. Clemens (1), R. Rampazzo (1), L. Silva (3), J. R. Valdes (2), G. L. Granato (1,4), L. Danese (4) ((1) INA...

Title: The nuclear regions of NGC 7582 from (NeII) spectroscopy at 12.8 microns - an estimate of the black hole mass Authors: M. Wold (1), M. Lacy (2), H.U. Kaeufl (1), R. Siebenmorgen (1) ((1) European Southern Observatory, Garching bei Muenchen, (2) Spitzer Science Centre/Cal...

Chandra X-ray telescope observations of the massive spiral galaxy NGC 5746 in the constellation Virgo, have revealed a large halo of hot gas (blue) surrounding the optical disk of the galaxy (white). The halo extends more than 60,000 light years on either side of the disk of...

Astronomers have discovered a population of what appear to be young star clusters where they aren't supposed to be. The newborn stars appear to have formed in the debris of the NGC 2782 galaxy collision -- debris that lacks what astronomers believe are some important ingredients needed to f...

New Integral Field Spectrograph Reveals the Energetic Gas Outflow from the Supermassive Black Hole in the galaxy NGC 1052, obtained by researchers at Kyoto University and the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan by using a guest instrument Kyoto 3DII, have revealed a high velocit...

A new image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer shows that a galaxy once thought to be rather plain and old is actually endowed with a gorgeous set of young spiral arms. The unusual galaxy, called NGC 4625, is a remarkable find because it is relatively nearby. Until now, astronomers had t...

ESO's Very Large Telescope, located on the 2,600m high Cerro Paranal in the Chilean Andes has captured the spiral galaxy NGC 1350 that lies Eighty-five million light years away. NGC 1350 is classified as an Sa(r) type galaxy, (a spiral with large central regions) The galaxy lie...

Researchers are reporting the discovery of a large hydrogen (HI) cloud in the central regions of the Virgo cluster. It is 110 x 25 kpc in size and contains 3.4 x 10^8 solar masses of hydrogen gas. The shape and movement of this cloud strongly suggest that it consists of gas removed from t...

A Rotating Compact Nuclear Stellar Cluster in NGC 4244 Based on laser guide star adaptive optics (LGS-AO) -fed integral field spectroscopy with the Near-Infrared Spectrograph (NIFS) at Gemini North, Anil C. Seth of the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics and his collaborators demons...

Title: A New Hubble Space Telescope Distance to NGC 1569: Starburst Properties and IC 342 Group Membership Authors: Aaron J. Grocholski, Alessandra Aloisi, Roeland P. van der Marel, Jennifer Mack, Francesca Annibali, Luca Angeretti, Laura Greggio, Enrico V. Held, Donatella Romano, Marco Siri...

Title: Optical Spectroscopy of the environment of a ULX in NGC 7331 Authors: Pavel K. Abolmasov, Douglas A. Swartz, S. Fabrika, Kajal K. Ghosh, O. Sholukhova, Allyn F. Tennant Optical photometric and spectroscopic data are presented that show an association of an ultraluminous X-ray source in NG...

An unusual large galaxy with a shape bordering between spiral and elliptical has been spotted by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 7049 sits in the southern constellation Indus, and is the brightest of a cluster of galaxies, a so-called brightest cluster galaxy. Typical BCGs are some of the oldes...

NGC 2442 is an intermediate spiral galaxy about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Volans. It was discovered by Sir John Herschel. IMAGE (301kb, 1600 x 1472) Credit ESO [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wik...

Title: NGC 6340: an old S0 galaxy with a young polar disc. Clues from morphology, internal kinematics and stellar populations Authors: Igor Chilingarian, Alexandra Novikova, Veronique Cayatte, Francoise Combes, Paola Di Matteo, Anatoly Zasov Lenticular galaxies are believed to form by a comb...

Title: A Chandra view of NGC 3621: a bulgeless galaxy hosting an AGN in its early phase? Authors: M. Gliozzi (1), S. Satyapal (1), M. Eracleous (2), L. Titarchuk (1), C.C. Cheung (3) ((1) GMU, (2) PSU, (3) NASA GSFC) We report the detection of a weak X-ray point source coincident with the nucleus of the b...

Title: Subarcsecond Resolution Mid-Infrared Observations of Super Star Clusters in the Antennae (NGC4038/4039) Authors: Leonie Snijders, Paul P. van der Werf, Bernhard R. Brandl, Sabine Mengel, Daniel Schaerer, Zhong Wang In this letter researchers present ground-b...

Baffling boxy bulge Just as many people are surprised to find themselves packing on unexplained weight around the middle, astronomers find the evolution of bulges in the centres of spiral galaxies puzzling. A recent NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 4710 is part of a survey that astrono...

Peering deep inside Centaurus A (NGC 5128), the closest active galaxy to Earth at 10 million light-years away, the Spitzer Space Telescope's penetrating infrared cameras recorded this startling vista in February 2004. About 1,000 light-years across, the twisted cosmic dust cloud ap...

Title: Discovery of two distinct red clumps in NGC419: a rare snapshot of a cluster at the onset of degeneracy Authors: Leo Girardi (1), Stefano Rubele (1,2), Leandro Kerber (3) ((1) Oss. Astron. Padova, (2) Dip. Astron. Padova (3), IAG-USP, Sao Paulo) Colour-magnitude diagrams (CMD) of the SMC st...

The unique planetary nebula NGC 2818 is nested inside the open star cluster NGC 2818A. Both the cluster and the nebula reside over 10,000 light-years away, in the southern constellation Pyxis (the Compass). Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA) This Hubble image was taken i...

Title: Raman Scattered HeII 6545 in the Young and Compact Planetary Nebula NGC 6790 Authors: Eun-Ha Kang, Hee-Won Lee, Byeong-Cheol Lee We present the high resolution spectra of the youn and compact planetary nebula NGC 6790 obtained with the echelle spectrograph at Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy...

High resolution spectroscopy of the Bug Nebula (NGC 6302) by the Gemini South observatory has revealed hyperfine structure in the 3.66 micron line of ionized aluminium. A joint Chile-United Kingdom team led by Simon Casassus (University of Chile) used the NOAO-built Phoenix n...

This image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, shows the colourful "last hurrah" of a star like our Sun. The star is ending its life by casting off its outer layers of gas, which formed a cocoon around the star's remaining core. Ultraviolet light from the dying star makes the...

Polar Ring Galaxy NGC 660 Credit & Copyright: Immo Gerber and Dietmar Hager (TAO) NGC 660 lies near the center of this intriguing field of galaxies swimming within the boundaries of the constellation Pisces. Over 20 million light-years away, its peculiar appearance marks it as a polar ring gal...

The Flame Nebula, designated as NGC 2024 (and Sh2-277) is an emission nebula in the Constellation Orion. It is about 900 to 1,500 light-years away. Read more

Title: Chandra and Spitzer Imaging of the Infrared Cluster in NGC 2071 Authors: S.L. Skinner, K.R. Sokal, S.T. Megeath, M. Guedel, M. Audard, K.M. Flaherty, M.R. Meyer, A. Damineli We present results of a sensitive Chandra X-ray observation and Spitzer mid-IR observations of the infrared cluste...

NGC 3918 is a bright planetary nebula in the constellation Centaurus, that is called the "Blue Planetary" or "The Southerner". It is the brightest of the far southern planetary nebula NGC 3918 was discovered by Sir John Herschel in March 1834, and in easily visible in a small t...

Title: The outflows and 3D structure of NGC 6337, a planetary nebula with a close binary nucleus Authors: Ma. T. García-Díaz, D. M. Clark, J. A. López, W. Steffen, M. G. Richer NGC 6337 is a member of the rare group of planetary nebulae where a close binary nucleus has been identified. The nebula's morp...

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ of Iowa/P.Kaaret et al.; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI/Univ of Iowa/P.Kaaret et al. This composite image of the Medusa galaxy (also known as NGC 4194) shows X-ray data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory in blue and optical light from the Hubble Space Telescope in oran...

We recently looked at Castor, the second brightest star in Gemini and a fine multiple star. Not far away, you'll find the remnants of a dying star, the beautiful planetary nebula NGC 2392. This is one of the youngest-known planetary nebula - only 1,000 years old - and it's easily visible in a small te...

A modest but unusually attractive open star cluster in Canis Major, NGC2362 hosts some of the youngest-known stars, some of which are still contracting and settling onto the main sequence. This open cluster contains many faint stars centred on the bright star tau Canis Majoris; in a telescope, th...

Astronomers using the Spitzer Space Telescope have captured a spectacular new picture of a star-forming region called the "Christmas Tree Cluster," complete with first-ever views of a group of newborn stars still linked to their siblings. Spitzer's cameras are very sensitive to th...

This Hubble Space Telescope view shows one of the most dynamic and intricately detailed star-forming regions in space, located 210,000 light-years away in the [url=http://www.activeboard.com/forum.spark?forumID=58381&subForumID=150691&action=viewTopic&commentID=3273659]Smal...

The Castaway Cluster, catalogued as NGC 6520, is located just above the spout in the Teapot of Sagittarius. This is a rich region of the Milky Way containing many gas clouds and star clusters, including the Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae. NGC 6520, a tiny jewel of a cluster, is often forgotten amongst thes...

Title: The Globular Cluster NGC 5286. I. A New CCD BV Color-Magnitude Diagram Authors: M. Zorotovic (1), M. Catelan (1), M. Zoccali (1), B. J. Pritzl (2), H. A. Smith (3), A. W. Stephens (4), R. Contreras (1,5), M. E. Escobar (1) ((1) PUC-Chile; (2) Univ. Wisconsin Oshkosh; (3) Michigan State Univ.; (...

Title: NGC 2362: The Terminus of Star Formation Authors: S. E. Dahm NGC 2362 is a richly populated Galactic cluster, devoid of natal molecular gas and dust. The cluster represents the final product of the star forming process and hosts an unobscured and near-complete initial mass function. NGC 236...

Title: BV photometry of a possible open star cluster pair NGC 7031/NGC 7086 Authors: Valentin Kopchev, Georgy Petrov We present a CCD BV photometry of the possible binary open star cluster NGC 7031/NGC 7086. The aim is to confirm or disprove their common nature on the grounds of their age and distanc...

Title: Investigating the Nature of the Dust Emission around Massive Protostar NGC 7538 IRS 1: Circumstellar Disk and Outflow? Authors: James M. De Buizer- Gemini Observatory, and Vincent Minier - DAPNIA/DSM/CEA Centre d'Etudes de Saclay. Researchers have obtained hi...

Title: NGC 602 Environment, Kinematics and Origins Authors: L. Nigra, J. S. Gallagher III, L. J. Smith, S. Stanimirovic, A. Nota, E. Sabbi The young star cluster NGC 602 and its associated HII region, N90, formed in a relatively isolated and diffuse environment in the Wing of the Small Magellanic Cl...

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/STScI JPEG (391 kb) Tiff (9.3 MB) PS (7.8 MB) This composite of data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Hubble Space Telescope is a new look for NGC 6543, better known as the Cat's Eye nebula. This famous object is a so-called planetary nebula that...

Title: Variable stars in the open cluster NGC 6791 and its surrounding field Authors: F. De Marchi, E. Poretti, M. Montalto, G. Piotto, S. Desidera, L. R. Bedin, R. Claudi, A. Arellano Ferro, H. Bruntt, P.B. Stetson Aims: This work presents a high--precision variability survey in the field of the ol...

NGC 281 is a star forming nebula about 2 degrees east of alpha Cassiopeia. Prominent features include a small open cluster of stars, a diffuse red-glowing emission nebula, large lanes of obscuring gas and dust, and dense knots of dust and gas. [url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0508...

Title: Nitrogen abundances in giant stars of the globular cluster NGC 6752 Authors: David Yong (1), Frank Grundahl (2), Jennifer A. Johnson (3), Martin Asplund (4) ((1) RSAA, Mt Stromlo Observatory, (2) Univ. of Aarhus, (3) Ohio State University, (4) MPA Garching) We present N abu...

Title: Wide-Field Infrared Imaging Polarimetry of the NGC 6334 Region: A Nest of Infrared Reflection Nebulae Authors: J. Hashimoto, M. Tamura, R. Kandori, N. Kusakabe, Y. Nakajima, M. Kurita, T. Nagata, T. Nagayama, J. Hough, A. Chrysostomou We report the detection of eighteen infrared reflect...

The object, called NGC 2371, is a planetary nebula, the glowing remains of a sun-like star. The remnant star visible at the centre of NGC 2371 is the super-hot core of the former red giant, now stripped of its outer layers. Its surface temperature is a scorching 240,000 degrees Fahrenheit. NGC 2371 li...

Title: The Evolution of NGC 7027 at Radio Frequencies: A New Determination of the Distance and Core Mass Authors: Albert Zijlstra, P.A.M. van Hoof, R.A. Perley We present the results of a 25-year program to monitor the radio flux evolution of the planetary nebula NGC7027. We find significant evolu...

Two new images from the Gemini Observatory released today at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Calgary, Canada, show a pair of beautiful nebulae that were created by two very different types of stars at what may be similar points in their evolutionary timelines. One is a rare type of...

Probing a glowing bubble of gas and dust encircling a dying Sun-like star, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveals a wealth of previously unseen structures in planetary nebula NGC 2371. The remnant star visible at the centre of NGC 2371 is the super-hot core of the former red giant, now stripped of its...

Title: Deep ACS Imaging in the Globular Cluster NGC6397: Dynamical Models Authors: Jarrod R. Hurley, Michael M. Shara, Harvey B. Richer, Ivan R. King, D. Saul Davis, Jason S. Kalirai, Brad M. S. Hansen, Aaron Dotter, Jay Anderson, Gregory G. Fahlman, R. Michael Rich We present N-body models to comp...

Title: The old open cluster NGC 2112: updated estimates of fundamental parameters based on a membership analysis Authors: Giovanni Carraro (ESO), Sandro Villanova (Concepcion), Pierre Demarque (Yale), Christian Moni Bidin (UChile), Ginny McSwain (Lehigh University) We report on a new, wide...

Title: An XMM-Newton view of the young open cluster NGC 6231 -- II. The OB star population Authors: H. Sana, G. Rauw, Y. Naze, E. Gosset, J.-M. Vreux In this second paper, researchers pursue the analysis of the 180 ks XMM-Newton campaign towards the young open cluster NGC 6231 a...

Title: GALEX Ultraviolet photometry of NGC 2420: searching for WDs Authors: C. De Martino, L. Bianchi, I. Pagano, J. Herald, D. Thilker We present colour-magnitude diagrams of the open cluster NGC 2420, obtained from Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) ultraviolet images in FUV and NUV bands and S...

Title: SPITZER/IRAC-MIPS Survey of NGC2244: Protostellar Disk Survival in the Vicinity of Hot Stars Authors: Zoltan Balog, James Muzerolle, G. H. Rieke, Kate Y. L. Su, Eric T. Young We present the results from a survey of NGC 2244 from 3.6 to 24 micron with the Spitzer Space Telescope. The 24micron-...

ESO's Very Large Telescope, equipped with the multi-mode FORS instrument, took an image of NGC 3190, a galaxy so distorted that astronomers gave it two names. And as if to prove them right, in 2002 it fired off, almost simultaneously, two stellar explosions, a very rare event. This beautiful edge-o...

Title: The Globular Cluster System of M60 (NGC 4649). II. Kinematics of the Globular Cluster System Authors: Ho Seong Hwang (1), Myung Gyoon Lee (1), Hong Soo Park (1), Sang Chul Kim (2), Jang-Hyun Park (2), Young-Jong Sohn (3), Sang-Gak Lee (1), Soo-Chang Rey (4), Young-Wook Lee (3), Ho-Il Kim (2) (...

Title: Lithium abundances in the old open cluster NGC 3960 from VLT/FLAMES observations Authors: Loredana Prisinzano (1), Sofia Randich (2) ((1) INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Palermo, Italy (2) INAF - Osservatorio Astronomico di Arcetri, Italy) Old open clusters are very useful targets t...

NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has detected enough water vapour to fill the oceans on Earth five times inside the collapsing nest of a forming star system. Astronomers say the water vapour is pouring down from the system's natal cloud and smacking into a dusty disk where planets are thought to form...

Title: Debris Disks in NGC 2547 Authors: N. Gorlova (Univ. Florida), Z. Balog, G. H. Rieke, J. Muzerolle, K. Y. L. Su (Univ. Arizona), V. D. Ivanov (ESO), E. T. Young (Univ. Arizona) We have surveyed the 30 Myr-old cluster NGC 2547 for planetary debris disks using Spitzer. At 4.5-8 um we are sensitive t...

Title: Remnant of a "Wet" Merger: NGC 34 and Its Young Massive Clusters, Young Stellar Disk, and Strong Gaseous Outflow Authors: Francois Schweizer (OCIW), Patrick Seitzer (U. Michigan) This paper presents new images and spectroscopy of NGC 34 (Mrk 938) obtained with the du Pont 2.5-m...

Title: NGC2298: a globular cluster on its way to disruption Authors: Guido De Marchi (ESA), Luigi Pulone (INAF) We have studied the stellar main sequence (MS) of the globular cluster NGC2298 using deep HST/ACS observations in the F606W and F814W bands covering an area of 3.4...

Title: Proper Motions of the Ansae in the Planetary Nebula NGC 7009 Authors: Luis F. Rodriguez, Yolanda Gomez For the planetary nebula NGC 7009, we present a comparison of two unpublished Very Large Array archive data sets taken with a time separation of 8.09 years to confirm...

NGC 6745 (also known as UGC 11391) is an irregular galaxy about 206 million light-years (63.5 parsecs) away in the constellation Lyra. It is actually a pair of galaxies in the process of colliding. [url=http://st...

Title: Green Bank Telescope observations of the water masers of NGC 3079: accretion disk magnetic field and maser scintillation Authors: W.H.T. Vlemmings (1), H.E. Bignall (2), P.J. Diamond (1) ((1) Jodrell Bank Observatory, (2) Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe...

NGC 7635, the Bubble Nebula, lies 11,000 light-years away toward the constellation Cassiopeia.. The 10 light-year diameter bubble is created by a bright hot star embedded in reflecting dust. A fierce stellar wind and intense radiation from the star, which likely has a mass 10 to 20 times that of t...

Title: Eclipsing binaries in the open cluster NGC 2243 - I. Photometry Authors: J. Kaluzny, W. Krzeminski, I.B. Thompson, G. Stachowski We obtained BV time series photometry for 12 variable stars from the field of the old open cluster NGC 2243. The sample includes 3 newly ide...

Title: NGC 3310 and Its Tidal Debris: Remnants of Galaxy Evolution Authors: Elizabeth H. Wehner, John S. Gallagher, Polichronis Papaderos, Uta Fritze-von Alvensleben, Kyle B. Westfall NGC 3310 is a local galaxy with an intense, ongoing starburst thought to result from a m...

Title: An XMM-Newton Observation of the Massive Edge-on Sb Galaxy NGC 2613 Authors: Zhiyuan Li, Q. Daniel Wang, Judith A. Irwin, Tara Chaves Researchers present an XMM-Newton observation of the massive edge-on Sb galaxy NGC 2613. They discover that this galaxy contains...

Title: Mid-infrared imaging of NGC1068 with VISIR at the VLT Authors: E. Galliano, E. Pantin, D. Alloin, P.O. Lagage High resolution mid-infrared (MIR) images of the central region of NGC1068 (M77) have been obtained with VISIR, the multi-mode MIR instrum...

Title: NGC922 - A new drop-through ring galaxy Authors: O. I. Wong, G. R. Meurer, K. Bekki, D. J. Hanish, R. C. Kennicutt, J. Bland-Hawthorn, E. V. Ryan-Weber, B. Koribalski, V. A. Kilborn, M. E. Putman, J. S. Heiner, R. L. Webster, R. J. Allen, M. A. Dopita, M. T. Doyle, M. J. Drinkwat...

A pair of dancing galaxies appears dressed for a cosmic masquerade in a new image from the Spitzer Space Telescope. This infrared picture shows two merging galaxies, called NGC 2207 and IC 2163, which recently met and began to orbit around each other. Dotted along the arms are...

Title: A Hot DQ White Dwarf in the Open Star Cluster M35 Authors: Kurtis A. Williams (1), James Liebert (1), Michael Bolte (2), Robert B. Hanson (2) ((1) Steward Observatory, (2) UCO/Lick Observatory) Researchers report the discovery of a hot DQ white dwarf, NGC 2168:LAW...

A new Gemini Observatory image of NGC 246, nicknamed the "Skull Nebula," shows what can happen as the outer atmosphere of a fast-moving, dying star like the Sun (in several billion years) pushes through the complex soufflé of gas and dust that lies between the stars of our gal...

NGC 288 is a magnitude 8.1 globular star cluster 27000 light years away in Sculptor. It is located located right next to (separation 1.8°) the edge on Galaxy NGC 253 which is approximately 10 million light years away. [img]http://static.flickr.com/34/113368299_0608447c9d_o.j...

This X-ray/optical composite image of the large spiral galaxy NGC 2841 in the constellation Ursa Major shows multimillion-degree gas (blue/X-ray) rising above the disk of stars and cooler gas (grey/optical). [img]http://static.flickr.com/54/108769498_a768775e44_o.jpg[/...

This dramatic spiral galaxy, catalogued as NGC 1309, in the constellation Eridanus was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. Recent observations of the galaxy taken in visible and infrared light come together in a colourful depiction of many of the galaxy's features. Bright blue...

South of the large star-forming region known as the Orion Nebula, lies bright blue reflection nebula NGC 1999. The nebula is marked with a tiny dark inverted T-shaped dot in the middle of the bluewhite glow. The dark shape is a dense gas and dust cloud, or Bok globule, seen in silhouette agai...

Similar in size and grand design to our own Milky Way, spiral galaxy NGC 3370 lies about 98 million light-years away toward the constellation Leo. Recorded here in exquisite detail by the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera for Surveys, the big, beautiful face-on spiral, about 95,00...

Title: The complex X-ray morphology of NGC 7618: A major group-group merger in the local Universe? Authors: R. P. Kraft, C. Jones, P. E. J. Nulsen, M. J. Hardcastle Researchers present results from a short Chandra/ACIS-S observation of NGC 7618, the dominant cent...

This image shows the area surrounding the magnitude 7.1 stellar cluster NGC 2467, located in the southern constellation of Puppis (The Stern). With an age of a few million years at most, it is a very active stellar nursery, where new stars are born continuously from large clouds of du...

Two new Gemini Legacy images are now available that capture the dynamics of two very different interactions in space. The Gemini Observatory released a pair of images today that capture the dynamics of two very different interactions in space. One is a cold, dark dust cloud that resembles an et...

The stellar nursery NGC 7129 lies 3,000 light-years away in the constellation Cepheus. It contains stars that are only about a million years old. [img]http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0508/...

Two astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to discover a shell of superheated gas around a dying star in the Milky Way galaxy. Joel Kastner, professor of imaging science at the Rochester Institute of Technology, and Rodolpho Montez, a graduate student in physics and astronom...

A dearth of planetary transits in the direction of NGC 6940 Authors: Ben Hood, Andrew Collier Cameron, Stephen R. Kane, D. M. Bramich, Keith Horne, Rachel A. Street, I. A. Bond, A. J. Penny, Y. Tsapras, A. Quirrenbach, N. Safizadeh, D. Mitchell, J. Cooke [img...

Stars, Dust and Nebula in NGC 6559 When stars form, pandemonium reigns. A textbook case is the star forming region NGC 6559. Visible are red glowing emission nebulas of hydrogen, blue reflection nebulas of dust, dark absorption nebulas of dust, and the stars that formed from them. The firs...

NGC 188 is an open cluster in the constellation Cepheus. It was discovered by John Herschel in 1825. Unlike most open clusters that drift apart after a few million years because of the gravitational interaction of our galaxy, NGC 188 lies far above the plane of the galaxy and is one of the most ancient o...

Hubble Catches End of Star-Making Party in Nearby Dwarf Galaxy Galaxies throughout the universe are ablaze with star birth. But for a nearby, small spiral galaxy, the star-making party is almost over. Astronomers were surprised to find that star-formation activities in the outer regions of NGC 2...

Title: The Recent Star Formation History of NGC 5102 Authors: Sylvie F. Beaulieu, Kenneth C. Freeman, Sebastian L. Hidalgo, Colin A. Norman, Peter J. Quinn We present Hubble Space Telescope photometry of young stars in NGC 5102, a nearby gas-rich post-starburst S0 galaxy with a bright young stell...

Snowflake-Shaped Galaxy As part of its Hubble Heritage program, NASA has released an image, taken by a team led by University of Arizona astronomer Rodger Thompson, of a galaxy that resembles a snowflake. Click here to view the image. A bluish-white spiral galaxy hangs delicately in the cold vacuu...

Title: Young stellar populations and star clusters in NGC 1705 Authors: F. Annibali (INAF-Oapd, Stsci), M. Tosi (INAF-Oabo), M. Monelli (IAC), M. Sirianni (ESA, Stsci), P. Montegriffo (INAF-Oabo), A. Aloisi (ESA, Stsci), L. Greggio (INAF-Oapd) We present HST photometry of the late-type dwarf...

Title: SPITZER/IRAC-MIPS Survey of NGC2451A and B: Debris Disks at 50-80 million years Authors: Zoltan Balog, Laszlo L. Kiss, Jozsef Vinko, G. H. Rieke, James Muzerolle, Andras Gaspar, Erick T. Young, Nadya Gorlova We present a Spitzer IRAC and MIPS survey of NGC 2451 A and B, two open clusters in th...

One of the brightest stars of the storied Southern Cross isn't a star at all, but splendid cluster of young stars aptly called the "Jewel Box". This star cluster, one of the treasures of the southern sky, is unforgettable in a small telescope. [url=http://www.oneminuteastronomer.com...

A new image from the Spitzer Space Telescope reveals hundreds of young stars. The new infrared image of the reflection nebula NGC 1333, located about 1,000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Perseus, reveals dozens of stars like the Sun but much younger. "These newborn...

Title: The Mysterious Merger of NGC6868 and NGC6861 in the Telescopium Group Authors: M. E. Machacek (1), E. O'Sullivan (1 and 2), S.W. Randall (1), C. Jones (1), W. R. Forman (1) ((1) CfA, (2) Univ. of Birmingham) We use Chandra X-ray observations of the hot gas in and around NGC6868 and NGC6861 in the...

ESO is releasing a magnificent VLT image of the giant stellar nursery surrounding NGC 3603, in which stars are continuously being born. Embedded in this scenic nebula is one of the most luminous and most compact clusters of young, massive stars in our Milky Way, which therefore serves as an excellen...

Area around NGC5236 Expand ((16kb, 1056 x 1027) Ex...

The spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is viewed edge-on from planet Earth. Also known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile. It lies in the constellation Coma Berenices. [url=http://antwrp....

The California Nebula (NGC1499) is an Emission Nebula located in the constellation of Perseus. The size of the nebula is 160.0'x40.0', or about 3 degrees long and 1 degree wide. It is approximately 2000 light years away. [url=http://static.flickr.com/89/256722305_54d03dc52e_o.jpg]...

A striking pair of spiral galaxies in the constellation of Ursa Major – NGC 3718 (above, right) and NGC 3729 (below centre) – is 52 million light-years distant. [...

Expand (254kb, 1024 x 579) Credit NASA

Credit Don Goldman NGC 6888, also known as the Crescent Nebula, is a cosmic bubble about 25 light-years across, blown by winds from its central, bright, massive star. Near the centre o...

Area around **NGC 5077** 6 second exposure, at 02:02 UT on Tuesday 9 May 2006.

Area around NGC 5077 6 second exposure, at 02:02 UT on Tuesday 9 May 2006.

This image shows three galaxies, which are sometimes called the NGC5985/Draco Group, that lie between theta and iota Draco, in the northern constellation Draco. [url=http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa...

The delicate nebula NGC 1788, located in a dark and often neglected corner of the Orion constellation, is revealed in a new and finely nuanced image that ESO is releasing today. Although this ghostly cloud is rather isolated from Orion's bright stars, the latter's powerful winds and light have had a...

Title: NGC 765 - A disturbed H I giant Authors: A. M. Portas, E. Brinks, M. E. Filho, A. Usero, E. M. Dyke, P.-E. Belles We present Hi spectral line and radio-continuum VLA data of the galaxy NGC 765, complemented by optical and Chandra X-ray maps. NGC 765 has the largest Hi-to-optical ratio known to dat...

Title: NGC 4262: a Virgo galaxy with an extended ultraviolet ring Authors: Bettoni, D. (1), Buson, L. M. (1), Galletta, G. (2) ((1)INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Padova, (2) Dipartimento di Astronomia Universita' di Padova) The Galaxy Ultraviolet Explorer (GALEX) satellite has recently sh...

Title: The Active Nucleus in NGC 4579 Authors: Roberto B. Menezes, João E. Steiner, Tiago V. Ricci, Alexandre S. Oliveira In this work, we present an analysis of a data cube obtained with the instrument IFU/GMOS Gemini North telescope centred on the nuclear region of the LINER galaxy NGC 4579. Th...

Combining observations made with ESO's Very Large Telescope and NASA's Chandra X-ray telescope, astronomers have uncovered the most powerful pair of jets ever seen from a stellar black hole. This object, also known as a microquasar, blows a huge bubble of hot gas, 1000 light-years across, twice a...

Hubble space telescope astronomers unveiled a look at a spiral galaxy spinning like a wheel amid a sea of stars on Tuesday. The NGC 4911 galaxy lies some 320 million light-years away in the "Coma Cluster" of some 1,000 galaxies, islands of stars like our own Milky Way, set amid the vastness...

Title: XMM Observations of Seyfert 2 Galaxies NGC 7590: the Nature of X-ray Absorption Authors: X. W. Shu (USTC), T. Liu (USTC), J. X. Wang (USTC) We present the analysis of three XMM observations of the Seyfert 2 galaxy NGC 7590. The source was found to have no X-ray absorption in the low spatial resol...

NGC 4696: a cosmic question mark Curling around itself like a question mark, the unusual looking galaxy NGC 4696 itself begs many questions. Why is it such a strange shape? What are the odd, capillary-like filaments that stretch out of it? And what is the role of a large black hole in explaining its dec...

This face-on spiral galaxy, called NGC 3982, is striking for its rich tapestry of star birth, along with its winding arms. The arms are lined with pink star-forming regions of glowing hydrogen, newborn blue star clusters, and obscuring dust lanes that provide the raw material for future generatio...

This new image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope show the globular cluster known as NGC 1806. Comprised of tens of thousands of stars, it sits within the Large Magellanic Cloud - a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way - and was first seen by the British astronomer John Herschel in 1806. [url=http://ww...

European Southern Observatory astronomers have produced a spectacular new image of the famous Atoms-for-Peace galaxy (NGC 7252). This galactic pile-up, formed by the collision of two galaxies, provides an excellent opportunity for astronomers to study how mergers affect the evolution of the...

It might be a few years yet before humans travel to the edge of our galaxy, but at least we now know what it looks like. NASA yesterday released an amazing new image from the Hubble space telescope that shows galaxy NGC 4452. [url=http://www.news.com.au/technology/sci-tech/hubble-snaps-mailbo...

Elliptical galaxies were once thought to be aging star cities whose star-making heyday was billions of years ago. But new observations with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope are helping to show that elliptical galaxies still have some youthful vigour left, thanks to encounters with smaller galaxie...

A new image from NASA's Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer shows what looks like a glowing jellyfish floating at the bottom of a dark, speckled sea. In reality, this critter belongs to the cosmos -- it's a dying star surrounded by fluorescing gas and two very unusual rings. The object, known as NGC 1...

NGC 5813: An Intergalactic Weather Map This composite image shows an intergalactic "weather map" around the elliptical galaxy NGC 5813, the dominant central galaxy in a galaxy group located about 105 million light years away from Earth. Just like a weather map for a local forecast on Ea...

Title: A detailed spectroscopic analysis of the open cluster NGC 5460 Authors: L. Fossati, C.P. Folsom, S. Bagnulo, J.H. Grunhut, O. Kochukhov, J.D. Landstreet, C. Paladini, G.A. Wade Within the context of a large project aimed at studying early F-, A- and late B-type stars we present the abundanc...

Possible missing link between young and old galaxies University of California, Berkeley, astronomers may have found the missing link between gas-filled, star-forming galaxies and older, gas-depleted galaxies typically characterized as "red and dead." In a poster to be presented...

Title: Properties of dust and PAHs in the hot plasma of the elliptical galaxy NGC4125 revealed with AKARI and Spitzer Authors: Hidehiro Kaneda, Daisuke Ishihara, Takashi Onaka, Toyoaki Suzuki, Tatsuya Mori, Shinki Oyabu, Mitsuyoshi Yamagishi We present the spatial distributions of dust and po...

Title: NGC 2419: a large and extreme second generation in a currently undisturbed cluster Authors: M. Di Criscienzo, F. D'Antona, A. P. Milone, P. Ventura, V. Caloi, R. Carini, D'Ercole, E. Vesperini, G.Piotto We analyse complementary HST and SUBARU data for the globular cluster NGC 2419. We make...

New-born stars wreak havoc in their nursery Credit ESO A new image from ESO's Very Large Telescope gives a close-up view of the dramatic effects new-born stars have on the gas and dust from which they formed. Although the stars themselves are not visible, material they have ejected is colliding with...

The Rose-red Glow of Star Formation Credit ESO The vivid red cloud in this new image from ESO's Very Large Telescope is a region of glowing hydrogen surrounding the star cluster NGC 371. This stellar nursery lies in our neighbouring galaxy, the Small Magellanic Cloud. The object dominating this ima...

Title: The Spin of the Supermassive Black Hole in NGC 3783 Authors: L.W. Brenneman, C.S. Reynolds, M.A. Nowak, R.C. Reis, M. Trippe, A.C. Fabian, K. Iwasawa, J.C. Lee, J.M. Miller, R.F. Mushotzky, K. Nandra, M. Volonteri The Suzaku AGN Spin Survey is designed to determine the supermassive black ho...

Credit ESO The galaxies in this cosmic pairing, captured by the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile, display some curious features, demonstrating that each member of the duo is close enough to feel the distorting gravitational influence of the...

Title: Detection of a Hot Gaseous Halo Around the Giant Spiral Galaxy NGC 1961 Authors: Michael E. Anderson, Joel N. Bregman Hot gaseous halos are predicted around all large galaxies and are critically important for our understanding of galaxy formation, but they have never been detected at dista...

Hubble's newest camera has taken an image of galaxy NGC 4214. This galaxy glows brightly with young stars and gas clouds, and is an ideal laboratory to research star formation and evolution. Dwarf galaxy NGC 4214 may be small, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in content. It is packed with everyt...

Galactic Fountain of Youth Credit NASA This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the edge-on profile of the slender spiral galaxy NGC 5775. Although the spiral is tilted away from us, with only a thin slither on view, such a perspective can be advantageous for astronomers because the region...

This is a unique view of the disk galaxy NGC 5866 tilted nearly edge-on to our line-of-sight. The Hubble space telescope's sharp vision reveals a crisp dust lane dividing the galaxy into two halves. The image highlights the galaxy's structure: a subtle, reddish bulge surrounding a bright n...

Unusual gas filaments surround the galaxy NGC 1275. NGC 1275 is the central dominant galaxy of the Perseus Cluster of Galaxies, a cluster with many member galaxies visible in this image. [url=htt...

Enigmatic Cluster Targeted by Hubble The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has used its powerful optics to separate the globular cluster NGC 6401 into its constituent stars. What was once only visible as a ghostly mist in the eyepieces of astronomical instruments has been transformed into a stunni...

NASA's Chandra Observatory Images Gas Flowing Toward Black Hole The flow of hot gas toward a black hole has been clearly imaged for the first time in X-rays. The observations from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory will help tackle two of the most fundamental problems in modern astrophysics: unders...

This new picture from ESO's Very Large Telescope shows NGC 3521, a spiral galaxy located about 35 million light years away in the constellation of Leo (The Lion). Spanning about 50 000 light-years, this spectacular object has a bright and compact nucleus, surrounded by richly detailed spiral stru...

VLT Looks into The Eyes of the Virgin Credit: ESO/Gems project ESO's Very Large Telescope has taken a striking image of a beautiful yet peculiar pair of galaxies nicknamed The Eyes. The larger of these, NGC 4438, was once a spiral galaxy but has become badly deformed by collisions with other galaxies...

Young Stars Take a Turn in the Spotlight ESO's New Technology Telescope (NTT) has captured a striking image of the open cluster NGC 2100. This brilliant star cluster is around 15 million years old, and located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. The cluster is su...

Title: Probing the unified model in NGC 7314 Authors: J. Ebrero, E. Costantini, J. S. Kaastra, B. De Marco, M. Dadina We present a study of the complex absorbed X-ray spectrum of the Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxy NGC 7314. We collected available public X-ray data from the archives of XMM-Newton, Suzak...

Title: The Suzaku View of the Disk-Jet Connection in the Low Excitation Radio Galaxy NGC 6251 Authors: D. A. Evans (1, 2), A. C. Summers (2), M. J. Hardcastle (3), R. P. Kraft (1), P. Gandhi (4), J. H. Croston (5), J. C. Lee (1) ((1) Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA, (2) Elon U...

Title: The Structure of NGC 1976 in the Radio Range Authors: T. L. Wilson, S. Casassus, Katie M. Chynoweth High angular resolution radio continuum images of NGC 1976 (M42, Orion A) at frequency=330 MHz (wavelength=91 cm), 1.5 GHz (20 cm) and 10.6 GHz (2.8 cm), have been aligned, placed on a common gri...

NASA's Hubble Finds Stellar Life and Death in a Globular Cluster A new NASA Hubble Space Telescope image shows globular cluster NGC 1846, a spherical collection of hundreds of thousands of stars in the outer halo of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a neighbouring dwarf galaxy of the Milky Way that can be s...

Title: NGC3801 caught in the act: A post-merger starforming early-type galaxy with AGN-jet feedback Authors: Ananda Hota, Soo-Chang Rey, Yongbeom Kang, Suk Kim, Satoki Matsu****a, Jiwon Chung In the current models of galaxy formation and evolution, AGN feedback is crucial to reproduce galaxy...

Title: Observations of NGC 3077 Galaxy in Narrow Band [SII] and H_alpha Filters Authors: M. Andjelic, K. Stavrev, B. Arbutina, D. Ilic, D. Urosevic We present observations of the HI tidal arm near dwarf galaxy NGC 3077 (member of the M81 galaxy group) in narrow band [SII] and H_alpha filters. Observ...

Title: Two ten-billion-solar-mass black holes at the centres of giant elliptical galaxies Authors: Nicholas J. McConnell (UC Berkeley), Chung-Pei Ma (UC Berkeley), Karl Gebhardt (UT Austin), Shelley A. Wright (UC Berkeley), Jeremy D. Murphy (UT Austin), Tod R. Lauer, (NOAO), James R. Graham (...

Hubble Spots a Busy Barred Spiral This classic shot of a galaxy in the constellation of Ursa Major was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 3259 is a bright barred spiral galaxy located approximately 110 million light-years from Earth. Being a fully-formed active galaxy, its bright c...

Title: CORS Baade-Wesselink distance to the LMC NGC 1866 blue populous cluster Authors: R. Molinaro, V. Ripepi, M. Marconi, I. Musella, E. Brocato, A. Mucciarelli, P. B. Stetson, J. Storm, A. R. Walker We used Optical, Near Infrared photometry and radial velocity data for a sample of 11 Cepheids be...

NGC 2169, is an open cluster in the Orion constellation. It was discovered by Giovanni Batista Hodierna before 1654 and discovered by William Herschel on October 15, 1784. NGC 2169 is at a distance of about 3,600 light years away from Earth. It is nicknamed "The '37' Cluster" due to its str...