Cartwheel in the Sky

Posted by Queuebot in Science & Tech on April 3, 2009 at 1:18 pm


This is the magnificent Cartwheel galaxy, a stellar structure which measures more than 100,000 light years across.

It was released to promote a 24-hour webcast from observatories around the world, marking the International Year of Astronomy.

The kaleidoscopic galaxy lies 500million light years from Earth, and its unusual shape is due to a catastrophic collision with one of the smaller galaxies on the lower left hundreds of millions of years ago.

The smaller galaxy produced compression waves in the gas of the Cartwheel as it plunged through it, which triggered bursts of star formation, lighting up the rim.

Link

From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by sunnyspeaks.


Previous post
this post? Please Email this               
Next post

Tags: , , ,


FUN PRODUCTS FROM THE NEATORAMA SHOP:
BuckyBalls (w/ Mystery Bonus!)


COMMENT

8 comments to "Cartwheel in the Sky"

  1. Johnny Cat
    April 3rd, 2009 at 3:03 pm

    "It was released to promote a 24-hour webcast"

    Who released it, and where was it beforehand?

  2. Evilbeagle
    April 3rd, 2009 at 4:40 pm

    How pretty!

    I'm one of those geeks that gets stuck on the Hubble site for hours looking at this sort of thing, so this is a treat to see here.

  3. Miss Cellania
    April 3rd, 2009 at 5:08 pm

    Johnny Cat, considering the telescopes involved, I would guess NASA released it, and was in their labs before. But I agree that the passive voice used in journalism can drive one nuts.

  4. ted
    April 3rd, 2009 at 8:17 pm

    Yeah, they released a whole galaxy just to promote a webcast? That's some budget.

  5. Johnny Cat
    April 4th, 2009 at 12:37 am

    a 100,000 light year budget. Hollywood would be ashamed.

  6. ECA
    April 4th, 2009 at 1:47 am

    http://www.ustream.tv/astro-100hours/videos

    Here is the link to all the videos for the shows..
    100 hours of astronomy..

  7. Miss Cellania
    April 4th, 2009 at 6:21 am

    OK, I get it, they didn't day the PICTURE was released!

  8. mattytiz
    April 4th, 2009 at 7:21 am

    Anyone ever played Geometry Wars :)


PLEASE LEAVE A COMMENT

Neatorama Comment Policy
You don't have to register or login to comment, but it's easier if you do so. Comments aren't censored, but those that are abusive or off-topic may be edited or deleted.


Stay updated on the comments with Comment RSS