Hubble Pinpoints Young Stars in Spiral Galaxy

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the spiral galaxy NGC 1317
ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team

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In this image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope peers into the spiral galaxy NGC 1317 in the constellation Fornax, located more than 50 million light-years from Earth. Visible in this galaxy image is a bright blue ring that hosts hot, young stars. NGC 1317 is one of a pair, but its rowdy larger neighbor, NGC 1316, lies outside Hubble’s field of view. Despite the absence of its neighboring galaxy, this image finds NGC 1317 accompanied by two objects from very different parts of the universe. The bright point ringed with a crisscross pattern is a star from our own galaxy surrounded by diffraction spikes, whereas the redder elongated smudge is a distant galaxy lying far beyond NGC 1317.

The data presented in this image are from a vast observing campaign of hundreds of observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys. Combined with data from the ALMA array in the Atacama Desert, these observations help astronomers chart the connections between vast clouds of cold gas and the fiercely hot, young stars that form within them. ALMA’s unparalleled sensitivity at long wavelengths identified vast reservoirs of cold gas throughout the local universe, and Hubble’s sharp vision pinpointed clusters of young stars, as well as measuring their ages and masses.

Often the most exciting astronomical discoveries require this kind of telescope teamwork, with cutting-edge facilities working together to provide astronomers with information across the electromagnetic spectrum. The same applies to Hubble’s observations that laid the groundwork for the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s scientific observations.

Source: NASA/Hubble Space Telescope

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Media Contact:

Claire Andreoli
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD

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Revealing Galactic Secrets

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Revealing the galactic secrets of NGC 1316

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The galaxy pair NGC 1316 and 1317 in the constellation of Fornax

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Wide-field view of the sky around the galaxies NGC 1316 and 1317

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Annotated view of the sky surrounding NGC 1316

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Videos

 

PR Video eso1734a

ESOcast 134 Light: Revealing Galactic Secrets (4K UHD)

PR Video eso1734b

Zooming in on the galaxy NGC 1316

PR Video eso1734c

Panning across the galaxy NGC 1316

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Countless galaxies vie for attention in this monster image of the Fornax Galaxy Cluster, some appearing only as pinpricks of light while others dominate the foreground. One of these is the lenticular galaxy NGC 1316. The turbulent past of this much-studied galaxy has left it with a delicate structure of loops, arcs and rings that astronomers have now imaged in greater detail than ever before with the VLT Survey Telescope. This astonishingly deep image also reveals a myriad of dim objects along with faint intracluster light.

Captured using the exceptional sky-surveying abilities of the VLT Survey Telescope (VST) at ESO’s Paranal Observatory in Chile, this deep view reveals the secrets of the luminous members of the Fornax Cluster, one of the richest and closest galaxy clusters to the Milky Way. This 2.3-gigapixel image is one of the largest images ever released by ESO.

Perhaps the most fascinating member of the cluster is NGC 1316, a galaxy that has experienced a dynamic history, being formed by the merger of multiple smaller galaxies. The gravitational distortions of the galaxy’s adventurous past have left their mark on its lenticular structure [1]. Large ripples, loops and arcs embedded in the starry outer envelope were first observed in the 1970s, and they remain an active field of study for contemporary astronomers, who use the latest telescope technology to observe the finer details of NGC 1316’s unusual structure through a combination of imaging and modelling.

The mergers that formed NGC 1316 led to an influx of gas, which fuels an exotic astrophysical object at its centre: a supermassive black hole with a mass roughly 150 million times that of the Sun. As it accretes mass from its surroundings, this cosmic monster produces immensely powerful jets of high-energy particles , that in turn give rise to the characteristic lobes of emission seen at radio wavelengths, making NGC 1316 the fourth-brightest radio source in the sky [2].

NGC 1316 has also been host to four recorded type Ia supernovae, which are vitally important astrophysical events for astronomers. Since type Ia supernovae have a very clearly defined brightness [3], they can be used to measure the distance to the host galaxy; in this case, 60 million light-years. These “standard candles” are much sought-after by astronomers, as they are an excellent tool to reliably measure the distance to remote objects. In fact, they played a key role in the groundbreaking discovery that our Universe is expanding at an accelerating rate.

This image was taken by the VST at ESO’s Paranal Observatory as part of the Fornax Deep Survey, a project to provide a deep, multi-imaging survey of the Fornax Cluster. The team, led by Enrichetta Iodice (INAF – Osservatorio di Capodimonte, Naples, Italy), have previously observed this area with the VST and revealed a faint bridge of light between NGC 1399 and the smaller galaxy NGC 1387 (eso1612) . The VST was specifically designed to conduct large-scale surveys of the sky. With its huge corrected field of view and specially designed 256-megapixel camera, OmegaCAM, the VST can produce deep images of large areas of sky quickly, leaving the much larger telescopes — like ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) — to explore the details of individual objects.

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Notes

[1] Lenticular or “lens-shaped” galaxies are an intermediate form between diffuse elliptical galaxies and the better-known spiral galaxies such as the Milky Way.

[2] As this radio source is the brightest in the constellation of Fornax it is also known as Fornax A.

[3] Type Ia Supernovae occur when an accreting white dwarf in a binary star system slowly gains mass from its companion until it reaches a limit that triggers the nuclear fusion of carbon. In a brief period of time, a chain reaction is initiated that eventually ends in a huge release of energy: a supernova explosion. The supernova always occurs at a specific mass, known as the Chandrasekhar limit, and produces an almost identical explosion each time. The similarity of type Ia supernovae allow astronomers to use the cataclysmic events to measure distance.

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More Information

This research was presented in the paper “The Fornax Deep Survey with VST. II. Fornax A: A Two-phase Assembly Caught in the Act”, by E. Iodice et al., in the Astrophysical Journal.

The team is composed of E. Iodice (INAF – Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Italy), M. Spavone (Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Italy), M. Capaccioli (University of Naples, Italy), R. F. Peletier (Kapteyn Astronomical Institute, University of Groningen, The Netherlands), T. Richtler (Universidad de Concepción, Chile), M. Hilker (ESO, Garching, Germany), S. Mieske (ESO, Chile), L. Limatola (INAF – Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Italy), A. Grado (INAF – Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Italy), N.R. Napolitano (INAF – Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Italy), M. Cantiello (INAF – Astronomical Observatory of Teramo, Italy), R. D’Abrusco (Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory/Chandra X-ray Center, US), M. Paolillo (University of Naples, Italy), A. Venhola (University of Oulu, Finland), T. Lisker (Zentrum für Astronomie der Universität Heidelberg, Germany), G. Van de Ven (Max Planck Institute for Astronomy, Germany), J. Falcon-Barroso (Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias, Spain) and P. Schipani (Astronomical Observatory of Capodimonte, Italy).

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and by Australia as a strategic partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

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Links

• Research paper 
• Photos of the VLT Survey Telescope

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Contacts

Enrichetta Iodice
INAF – Osservatorio Astronomico di Capodimonte
Napoli, Italy
Tel: +39 0815575546
Email: iodice@na.astro.it

Richard Hook
ESO Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org

Source: ESO

Galactic Serial Killer

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The contrasting galaxies NGC 1316 and 1317

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The galaxy pair NGC 1316 and 1317 in the constellation of Fornax

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Wide-field view of the sky around the galaxies NGC 1316 and 1317

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Videos

PR Video eso1411a

Zooming in on the galaxies NGC 1316 and 1317

PR Video eso1411b

Panning across the galaxies NGC 1316 and 1317

This new image from the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile shows two contrasting galaxies: NGC 1316, and its smaller neighbour NGC 1317. These two are quite close to each other in space, but they have very different histories. The small spiral NGC 1317 has led an uneventful life, but NGC 1316 has engulfed several other galaxies in its violent history and shows the battle scars.

Several clues in the structure of NGC 1316 reveal that its past was turbulent. For instance, it has some unusual dust lanes [1] embedded within a much larger envelope of stars, and a population of unusually small globular star clusters. These suggest that it may have already swallowed a dust-rich spiral galaxy about three billion years ago.

Also seen around the galaxy are very faint tidal tails — wisps and shells of stars that have been torn from their original locations and flung into intergalactic space. These features are produced by complex gravitational effects on the orbits of stars when another galaxy comes too close. All of these signs point to a violent past during which NGC 1316 annexed other galaxies and suggest that the disruptive behaviour is continuing.

NGC 1316 is located about 60 million light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation of Fornax (The Furnace). It also bears the name Fornax A, reflecting the fact that it is the brightest source of radio emission in the constellation — and in fact the fourth brightest radio source in the entire sky [2]. This radio emission is driven by material falling into the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy and has probably been provided with extra fuel by the interactions with other galaxies.

This very detailed new image from the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile was created by combining many individual images in the ESO archive. The aim of the original observations was to reveal the faintest features and study the disruption of this interesting system

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As a bonus the new picture also provides a window into the distant Universe far beyond the two bright galaxies in the foreground. Most of the faint fuzzy spots in the picture are much more distant galaxies — and there is a particularly dense concentration just to the left of NGC 1316.

Notes

[1] These dust lanes have been imaged in detail by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

[2] This applies at a radio frequency of 1400 MHz, at other frequencies the order will be different.

More information

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 15 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is the European partner of a revolutionary astronomical telescope ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. ESO is currently planning the 39-metre European Extremely Large optical/near-infrared Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Links

• Photos of the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
• Photos from the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
• Photos of La Silla

 

Contacts

Richard Hook
ESO, Public Information Officer
Garching bei München, Germany
Tel: +49 89 3200 6655
Cell: +49 151 1537 3591
Email: rhook@eso.org