File:A cosmic megamaser.jpg
Original file (1,280 × 1,046 pixels, file size: 157 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg)
Captions
Summary[edit]
DescriptionA cosmic megamaser.jpg |
English: This galaxy has a far more exciting and futuristic classification than most — it is a megamaser. Megamasers are intensely bright, around 100 million times brighter than the masers found in galaxies like the Milky Way. The entire galaxy essentially acts as an astronomical laser that beams out microwave emission rather than visible light (hence the ‘m’ replacing the ‘l’).
This megamaser is named IRAS 16399-0937, and is located over 370 million light-years from Earth. This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image belies the galaxy’s energetic nature, instead painting it as a beautiful and serene cosmic rosebud. The image comprises observations captured across various wavelengths by two of Hubble’s instruments: the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), and the Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS). NICMOS’s superb sensitivity, resolution, and field of view gave astronomers the unique opportunity to observe the structure of IRAS 16399-0937 in detail. They found that IRAS 16399-0937 hosts a double nucleus — the galaxy’s core is thought to be formed of two separate cores in the process of merging. The two components, named IRAS 16399N and IRAS 16399S for the northern and southern parts respectively, sit over 11 000 light-years apart. However, they are both buried deep within the same swirl of cosmic gas and dust and are interacting, giving the galaxy its peculiar structure. The nuclei are very different. IRAS 16399S appears to be a starburst region, where new stars are forming at an incredible rate. IRAS 16399N, however, is something known as a LINER nucleus (Low Ionization Nuclear Emission Region), which is a region whose emission mostly stems from weakly-ionised or neutral atoms of particular gases. The northern nucleus also hosts a black hole with some 100 million times the mass of the Sun! |
Date | |
Source | https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1652a/ |
Author |
ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (geckzilla) |
Licensing[edit]
ESA/Hubble images, videos and web texts are released by the ESA under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license and may on a non-exclusive basis be reproduced without fee provided they are clearly and visibly credited. Detailed conditions are below; see the ESA copyright statement for full information. For images created by NASA or on the hubblesite.org website, or for ESA/Hubble images on the esahubble.org site before 2009, use the {{PD-Hubble}} tag.
Conditions:
Notes:
|
- You are free:
- to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
- to remix – to adapt the work
- Under the following conditions:
- attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
File history
Click on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time.
Date/Time | Thumbnail | Dimensions | User | Comment | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
current | 08:58, 26 December 2016 | 1,280 × 1,046 (157 KB) | Jmencisom (talk | contribs) | User created page with UploadWizard |
You cannot overwrite this file.
File usage on Commons
The following 3 pages use this file:
File usage on other wikis
The following other wikis use this file:
Metadata
This file contains additional information such as Exif metadata which may have been added by the digital camera, scanner, or software program used to create or digitize it. If the file has been modified from its original state, some details such as the timestamp may not fully reflect those of the original file. The timestamp is only as accurate as the clock in the camera, and it may be completely wrong.
Credit/Provider | ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (geckzilla) |
---|---|
Source | ESA/Hubble |
Short title |
|
Image title |
|
Usage terms |
|
Date and time of data generation | 06:00, 26 December 2016 |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop CC 2015.5 (Windows) |
File change date and time | 16:09, 12 September 2016 |
Date and time of digitizing | 23:38, 31 May 2016 |
Date metadata was last modified | 18:09, 12 September 2016 |
Unique ID of original document | xmp.did:b01be862-08d1-d743-a1e7-3ce0ed38cced |
Contact information |
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2 Garching bei München, , D-85748 Germany |
IIM version | 4 |