Messier 82 by Hubble! (Hubble's 16th birthday in space)

[Kullat Nunu]

Hubble News Release: Happy Sweet Sixteen, Hubble Telescope!

To celebrate the Hubble Space Telescope's 16 years of success, the two space agencies involved in the project, NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA), are releasing this image of the magnificent starburst galaxy, Messier 82 (M82). This mosaic image is the sharpest wide-angle view ever obtained of M82. The galaxy is remarkable for its bright blue disk, webs of shredded clouds, and fiery-looking plumes of glowing hydrogen blasting out of its central regions. The observation was made in March 2006.

[cjbirch]

Happy Birthday Hubble!

[antoniseb]

Nice shot. I always liked M82. I like seeing the structure of the red clouds.

[ArgoNavis]

Nice shot. I always liked M82. I like seeing the structure of the red clouds.

The red clouds are interesting - presumably ionised hydrogen. Many galaxies display much smaller sprites of material being ejected from the disk due to SN events, but this red material seems to be flowing from the nucleus. It is generally explained as due to multiple SN explosions from this starburst galaxy, but why is it only from the core?

Might a central SMBH have a role here?

[ngc3314]

The red clouds are interesting - presumably ionised hydrogen. Many galaxies display much smaller sprites of material being ejected from the disk due to SN events, but this red material seems to be flowing from the nucleus. It is generally explained as due to multiple SN explosions from this starburst galaxy, but why is it only from the core?

Might a central SMBH have a role here?

Many starbursts, including M82, have the star formation strongly concentrated to the inner thousand light-years or so. In the IR, the core of M82 is so bright shining through the foreground dust that it shows diffraction spikes, and not all IR detectors can handle it with a large telescope. Why their starburst is so small is an interesting question about which a few relevant bits are known and additional ones surmised.

There are ionized winds associated with active nuclei as well; they are often distinctive in being ionized by the hard radiation from the nucleus as well as shocks. In M82, some regions rich in dust reflect (scatter) the spectrum of the central starburst; others are ionized by shocks at the interface between the intensely hot wind itself (perhaps as hot as 100,000,000 K, partly detectable in X-rays) and cooler surrounding gas.

Tying these together, there is some evidence from radio structures, emission-line ratios, and high-resolution imaging that starbursts surround active nuclei (accreting SMBHs) more often than expected by chance, and hints that the black hole feeds most copiously during a dramatic shutdown in global star-formation rate. I'm still trying to wrap my head around how this fits with what else we know about active nuclei anmd their surrounding galaxies.

[Andromeda321]

Aww, Hubble's old enough to get a driver's license! They grow up so fast...

PS- yes, the image is cool too

[antoniseb]

Aww, Hubble's old enough to get a driver's license! They grow up so fast...

Sweet Sixteen, and never been hit by a big rock.

[crosscountry]

sweet image. how come I can never get one like that?


I wish Hubble could go another 16 years.

[ToSeek]

sweet image. how come I can never get one like that?


I wish Hubble could go another 16 years.

It's possible if NASA can manage one more servicing mission.

[crosscountry]

let's hope for the best.

[Kaptain K]

It's possible if NASA can manage one more servicing mission.

The problem is that all but one of the scheduled Shuttle missions are to finish the white elephant. Guess which mission gets lost in case of problems!