Centaurus A- Latest Pic From Hubble Showing Star Forming Regions.

[Suzy]

WOW! Just have a look at all those star forming regions.
What an awesome image! :eyepop:



http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110616092645.htm

[renormalised]

Nah...don't see any flux around here:):P

Only stars, dust, gas, HII regions, a long distance between here and there:):P

[Suzy]

:lol2: Carl.

[renormalised]

If you were a Kiwi and you saw "flux" there, this is what you'd see...:):P:P

[jenchris]

What would you see if you were Chinese?

[Suzy]

Well I'm not a New Zealander nor Chinese, but as a Sri-Lankan, I see lots of pink ionised gas in that flux picture of Carl's.. yes I do (it's hanging off those green thingies - possible dark matter). I also see lots of blue, seems like oxygen. Yep. Am just trying to find the bok globules in it at the moment, it's difficult... I might need a magnifying glass. :P

[M54]

Fantastic detail!

Sure beats the view in my 5".:P

[madbadgalaxyman]

Thanks for the link, Suzy.

There are two main public Hubble Space Telescope websites, of which the european site is:

http://www.spacetelescope.org (http://www.spacetelescope.org/)

This site is the best of the two main public sites for easy downloading of very large and very high resolution versions of the publicly released HST images.
For instance, you will find an absolutely gigantic version of the N5128 image at this site.
Also, this site has a very good search engine, so you can find HST images of specific objects.

For comparison purposes, and "just for fun", I include the GALEX satellite (Far Ultraviolet plus Near Ultraviolet) image of N5128, which was downloaded from the GalexView virtual telescope on the internet.

96195

The GALEX far-ultraviolet band is extremely sensitive to areas of recent formation of massive and hot stars....it isolates even relatively modest areas where O and B stars have formed.
(see the GalexView "How to" in this forum)


The primary large-scale dark lane of N5128, in "real space", is essentially a rather distorted Barred Spiral galaxy that slices through the short axis of NGC 5128.
(in fact , in three dimensions, the spiral is arrayed along the shortest axis of the elliptical galaxy...... which is shaped like a triaxial ellipsoid; as was found in modelling by Kenneth C. Freeman and colleagues).
While the hot & massive & blue stars in the Dark Lane do look fairly modest in optical imaging,, they blaze "like floodlights" in the GALEX far-ultraviolet band.

[jjjnettie]

Amazing! Thanks Suzy girl.

[Paddy]

Great link, thanks Suzy

[RobF]

Yes, amazing image. Thanks for pointing it out Suzy. Its so amazing clear - looks something you'd expect from JJJ from Astrofest shooting the milky way, not an object 10x10^6 lightyears away :)

[Suzy]

Oh my gosh Nettie, the last time I heard someone call me that was my father who has since passed away. It was nice to hear it again. Was a very heart felt moment indeed. :)

I'm so glad you'll are enjoying this amazing picture.

Thank you so much Robert for all that wonderful information. As usual, you have given me some great info on Cent.A to think about. :thanx: He knows how much I like this galaxy. :D
I took a look at the hubble link you supplied, and it is jaw dropping!!
In your Galex pic, is that faint white stream of gas on top of it around the middle, the jet from the black hole?

[SkyViking]

It's so great to see this galaxy up close. Here's a direct link to the large scale version: http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/large/heic1110a.jpg
It really looks like a Milky Way image. Lots of nebulae and globular clusters scattered everywhere.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Suzy, that's an interesting question....... as to whether the blue material in the GALEX image of NGC 5128 corresponds to the very long jet of ionized gas that emanates from the supermassive black hole at the centre of this galaxy. Remember, blue in these GALEX Satellite images codes for far-ultraviolet light, which is totally blocked by the earth's atmosphere. Mostly, this wavelength of light tends to come from hot & young & massive stars, but I honestly don't know whether or not the plasma in jets like that of Cen A can produce far-ultraviolet light.

The jet is definitely visible in X-rays & in radio observations, and also it is probably faintly visible in the optical regime.

Also, it has been known for some time (a few decades) that some small blue knots of recently formed stars are associated with the Radio/Xray -luminous Plasma Jet.

The question of why stars should form at all in unusual environments such as radio jets and tidal tails, is in itself an interesting one......

In Sydney in 2009, there was a "really totally red hot" conference devoted solely to NGC 5128, and this presented gigantic numbers of images of NGC 5128 at every conceivable wavelength and image scale.

Fortunately for us, there are publicly accessible .pdf files of all the presentations that were given:
//www.atnf.csiro.au/research/cena/programme

and one of the papers that was presented at this conference overlays the GALEX image with the radio image of the jet that originates in the central black hole (or: the Massive Dark Object..... if the object is not a black hole).

I just downloaded 14 (!!) of the most relevant papers from this conference, so I should be able to answer your question, "when I get a Round Tuit"
(I do suffer from data overload...there are ~2000 unanalyzed scientific papers on my disk drive)

Certainly, the pdf files of the conference presentations represent a remarkable resource for anyone interested in the structure and appearance of N5128 at many different wavelengths.

[Suzy]

I agree Rolf, wouldn't it be just fabulous to grab a map and a telescope and go crazy on this galaxy! :D:lol: I see oodles of clusters which my eyes are bedazzled with. Aye.. I have a great love for star clusters.;)

Robert, again, thanks so much for all that info.
I had a look at some of the PDF file. :thumbsup: It would have be an amazing conference to attend.

I'm amused that I've asked a question that can't be answered (just yet anyway), it's just typical of me really... :lol:
Now see.. this is why I have only observed a handful of galaxies in the past18mths that I have been doing this.. I spend far too much time studying them, including the pictures of them, which in itself I treat like an observation session. :rolleyes:

[madbadgalaxyman]

Yes, suzy, you did ask me a hard question.....

NGC 5128 is one of the most complex objects known, though part of this complexity is simply due to the fact that it is nearby [about 12.4 (+/- 0.32) million light years according to the latest work] and has therefore had more study than more distant objects.
A lot of other objects would probably reveal a similar complexity if they were studied in greater detail.

The questions surrounding the role of the jet in causing the formation of the blue knots seen in the field of NGC 5128 are not answered as yet, as you have correctly stated!

GALEX imagery is very new, and a lot of the GALEX images have not been looked at in any detail, so it is not surprising that professional astronomers are still trying to understand what it all means. In astronomy today, we are extremely rich (and getting ever richer) in imaging data, but there are actually very few people thinking about this imaging data compared to the truckloads of images constantly coming in.

cheers,
madbadgalaxyman

[RobF]

Just looking at all those lit up hydrogen clouds, it makes you wonder what "orion nebs" are visible from the outer arms over there (not to mention all the M16s, M8s, etc!). Maybe there's even a "Hubble 2" imaging a faint but local barred-spiral nearby that's captured a tiny little yellowy dot (our sun) :question:

(I've got to stop watching Cosmos re-runs. That's Ron's fault!)

[strongmanmike]

Hey guys, you can download the 6 large official posters from the Many Faces of Centaurus A conference in Sydney in 09 here: http://www.atnf.csiro.au/people/Angel.Lopez-Sanchez/pictures_cena.html

..hmmm?..a familiar image there in the second and third poster too :whistle: :thumbsup:

Mike

[Suzy]

:scared2:
What an amazing picture Mike. And what an honor!!!
Why, you must have been tickled pink to have a large poster of your photo at that conference.:D

Thanks so much for that link with all those amazing posters of Centaurus A. I very much enjoyed looking through them all. :)

[Mliss]

thanks for directing me to this thread Suzy :thumbsup: and i can understand your love of Centaurus A. Total kudos to you Mike, those pics are just breathtaking.

[madbadgalaxyman]

Here is a short, but very good, summary of the nature and properties of NGC 5128.
This is a quotation taken from the reference: E.W. Peng et al., 2002, AJ, 124, 3144

NGC 5128 is the nearest easily observable giant elliptical galaxy and is the prototype for a post-merger elliptical galaxy. The prominent central rotating disk of gas and dust, optical shells, and HI shells, all point to a merger event within the last gigayear. It is also a prototype Fanaroff-Riley Class I radio galaxy, with a radio jet driven by an active galactic nucleus (AGN) believed to be inducing star formation in the northeast halo region. While NGC 5128 appears to be a uniquely complex system, it is only because of its proximity that we are able to discern and study features that are likely to be common in more distant galaxies.

[Suzy]

Thanks Robert! :D

[Suzy]

Have I understood this correctly.. the jet is caused by an excess of matter that the black hold can't swallow up? This jet being called a Quasar?

Look what I found from Chandra (regarding that jet) http:///chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/cenajet/cenajet_hand.html (http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2003/cenajet/cenajet_hand.html)

And this image by Spitzer in infra-red.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CentaurusA3.jpg

[Suzy]

Yoohooo Carl... :help2:

Please can you answer the above question for me regarding Cent. A's jet? :thanx:

[madbadgalaxyman]

For a further discussion about the blue/ultraviolet emitting knots associated with the plasma jet of NGC 5128, see my recent post in the Deep Space forum under the heading "Centaurus A with Halpha"

cheers,
The mad astronomer

[renormalised]

Basically, you're correct. Some of the material which gets caught around the BH is funneled by the extreme rotation of the accretion disk around the hole, plus the enormous magnetic fields present, and along with other materials surrounding the hole but not in the disk, out along the rotational/magnetic field axis of the hole. That material is then accelerated out by the poles of the field into the jets you see. It's akin to firing a bullet out of a shotgun or a particle accelerator accelerating charged particles. Most of the gases are completely ionised, so you get a soup of electrons, ionised atoms and other particles getting shot out at near light speed from both ends of the hole. All that material, especially the electrons, interacts with the surrounding ISM it penetrates into and that helps to create the jets you see.

That's the simple explanation:)

I'll answer the rest of the question when I get back, OK:)

Well, I'm back now (5:25pm):).....

Quasars are a type of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Not all AGN's are quasars, although some of the mechanisms which generate quasar activity are also present in other types of AGN's. Quasar activity becomes present in galactic nuclei when a lot of material is present in the central regions of galaxies that the central BH of those galaxies can chew up. Your average quasar produces about 10^40 joules/sec (watts) of energy from devouring the materials surrounding it, in terms of constant luminosity. That's the equivalent of it converting to energy of about 600 Earths per minute or 10 solar masses/year.

The central region of Cen A, though, is not a quasar. The amount of energy being released is several orders of magnitude too small to have been generated by a quasar at the centre of the galaxy. It's nowhere near bright enough, for a start. Even though the mechanism which is driving the activity is the same (a supermassive BH), Cen A is a radio galaxy. Much of the energy coming from the galaxy is in radio and x-ray emissions from the radio lobes at and near the ends of the jets coming from its nucleus.

[stephenb]

Wow, I could stare at images like this forever. :eyepop: Thanks for posting.

[RobF]

There's an interesting article on Cent A in the Fin Review of all places today. For a moment I thought Mike had won the bankers over, but its a pic from the Capella observatory (and lots of talk about Xray and microwave work and interferometry on the central supermassive black hole)

(Damn, thanks to my wife I can't say that now without that song from Twilight running through my head....:lol:)

[strongmanmike]

:lol: Thanks girls, yes it was an honour indeed to have my shot recognied as the diffinitive visible light optical shot from the 1000's available around the world taken from every observatory imaginable..rather astonishing really..let me just bang my head on the desk one more time to see if it's real..bang, bang...yep, still real :thumbsup:



Actually...I have appeared in the Fin Review.. twice...both times in a scary photo of me straining under the load of lifting big stone balls (no not mine) :whistle:...:lol:

Mike

[Suzy]

Hi Carl,

You snuck in the rest of your post in edit. I was waiting..and waiting.. then just decided to re-read what you said, and there it was, more information added. :lol:

You've explained it really well and I understand so much better now.
:thanx:
Suzy.

[Suzy]

Not sure what to offer you.. a bandaid, an Asprin, or a full strength beer. :P
You're a funny guy, Mike! :lol:

[Suzy]

:eyepop::eyepop::eyepop:



The Deepest View Ever of Centaurus A


Words fail me!

Just look at those jets been thrown out by the super massive black hole! :scared2::scared2::scared2:



http://news.discovery.com/space/big-pic-centaurus-a-galaxy-eso-120518.html

[stephenb]

Just look at that close up image! Imagine another life form looking up into their night sky and seeing their own set of unique DSOs!

[Suzy]

Here's a pic of Centaurus A showing the supernova 1986g!!!
http://www.aao.gov.au/images/captions/aat052.html

And now look here for a negative image of it showing all that galactic cirrus surrounding it!
Hover the mouse over the pic.
http://www.aao.gov.au/images/deep_html/n5128_d.html

Centaurus A widefield.
http://www.aao.gov.au/images/captions/uks032.html


All pictures were taken by David Malin from the Australian Astronomical Observatory (ASO).