See the majestic Southern Pinwheel Galaxy in this Dark Energy Camera image

2 weeks ago 4

Twelve million light-years away lies the galactic masterpiece Messier 83, also known as the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy. Its swirling spiral arms display a high rate of star formation and host six detected supernovae. This image was captured with the Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera, mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile, a Program of NSF NOIRLab.

An image from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) shows a striking celestial sight: the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, a gorgeous face-on galaxy that is one of the closest and brightest barred spiral galaxies in the sky. Also known as Messier 83, the galaxy is bright enough that it can even be seen with binoculars, but this image from a 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope shows the kind of stunning detail that can be picked out using a powerful instrument.

“This image shows Messier 83’s well-defined spiral arms, filled with pink clouds of hydrogen gas where new stars are forming,” explains NOIRLab from the National Science Foundation, which released the image. “Interspersed amongst these pink regions are bright blue clusters of hot, young stars whose ultraviolet radiation has blown away the surrounding gas. At the galaxy’s core, a yellow central bulge is composed of older stars, and a weak bar connects the spiral arms through the center, funneling gas from the outer regions toward the core. DECam’s high sensitivity captures Messier 83’s extended halo, and myriad more distant galaxies in the background.”

The galaxy is around 15 million light-years away, and appears in the constellation of Hydra. It has famously been imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope as well, thanks to its large size and distinctive spiral shape. It is not to be confused with the Pinwheel Galaxy, another spiral galaxy that has a similar name due to its similar shape, but which is located in a different area of the sky — 110 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

The Southern Pinwheel is particularly visible even though it is not that large at around 50,000 light-years across. That’s about half the width of the Milky Way. However, the Southern Pinwheel glows brightly because it is a busy place for star formation, with many new stars being born and glowing brightly in the pink streaks seen in the image.

As well as new stars being born, this is also a region where old stars are dying, and the galaxy has been host to six supernova explosions seen in the last century. There is also evidence of hundreds of thousands of supernova remnantse, which are the ghostly structures left behind by previous supernova explosions. Astronomers study these bubble-shaped structures to learn more about the stars that once lived there before they came to the end of their lives and exploded, throwing out material into the space surrounding them.

Georgina Torbet

Georgina has been the space writer at Digital Trends space writer for six years, covering human space exploration, planetary…

Euclid space telescope captures stunning images of far-off galaxies

This image is released as part of the Early Release Observations from ESA’s Euclid space mission. This breathtaking image features Messier 78 (the central and brightest region), a vibrant nursery of star formation enveloped in a shroud of interstellar dust. This image is unprecedented, as it is the first shot of this young star-forming region at this width and depth. ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi

New images from the European Space Agency (ESA)'s Euclid telescope show a gorgeous range of cosmic objects, from bustling stellar nurseries to enormous galaxy clusters. The first science data from the telescope has also been released, showing how the telescope will contribute to the study of dark matter and dark energy.

Dark Energy Camera captures the gorgeous ‘God’s Hand’ globule

This cloudy, ominous structure is CG 4, a cometary globule nicknamed ‘God’s Hand’. CG 4 is one of many cometary globules present within the Milky Way, and how these objects get their distinct form is still a matter of debate among astronomers. CTIO/NOIRLab/DOE/NSF/AURA Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), D. de Martin & M. Zamani (NSF’s NOIRLab)

A stunning new image from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) shows the glowing structures of the Gum Nebula illuminated by the hot, massive stars studded throughout this cloud of dust and gas. Located 1,300 light-years away in the constellation of Puppis, this image highlights an unusually shaped structure in the nebula that looks like a hand reaching out into space. Nicknamed "God's Hand," the structure is a type of object called a cometary globule.

Hubble spots a bright galaxy peering out from behind a dark nebula

A new image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a galaxy partly hidden by a huge cloud of dust known as a dark nebula. The galaxy IC 4633 still shines brightly and beautifully in the main part of the image, but to the bottom right, you can see dark smudges of dust that are blocking the light from this part of the galaxy.

Taken using Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) instrument, the image also incorporates data from the DECam instrument on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, which is located in Chile. By bringing together data from the space-based Hubble and the ground-based DECam, astronomers can get a better look at this galaxy, located 100 million light-years away, and the dark dust partially obscuring it.

Read Entire Article