M-87 with spike

[qcdougn]

I don't remember sharing this with the group before...So, since skies are gray lately, I've pulled an interesting one from last winter. It's been described as follows:

M87 Galaxy - A black hole powered, 5000 light years long jet of sub-atomic particles traveling at nearly the speed of light.

It gives you an idea of how far this one is out there...if the spike is 5,000 LY long...

Doug

[Jamie]

Nice one Doug.

Kind of puts things into perspective distance wise.

[FLO]

I have read that around 15,000 globular clusters form a halo around the galaxy :shock: 8)

[OXO]

Nice image, M87 is 50 million light years away from earth

[qcdougn]

Steve and James....Great details that I didn't know....

Thanks

Doug

[FLO]

Doug, your image shows the galaxy as warm in colour ... is that right?

[daz]

Best pack some extra sandwiches for the journey..........

Nice image Doug

[CELESCOPE]

nice image Doug , that is a small one to get as well , but very interesting though ,

cheers

Rog

[qcdougn]

Thanks Rog and all....

Steve, I didn't intend to make it so warm....this is the way the color came out....It was a little "touchy" to image to catch the spike since it's a fairly bright object....although small.

It's easy to burn out the galaxy without seeing the spike. If I remember right, I took a few short exposures and stacked. I didn't do any major deep exposures.

Thanks

Doug

[OXO]

M-87 is a good one for Radio Telescopes from what i remember reading?

[Astrodragon]

Thanks Rog and all....

Steve, I didn't intend to make it so warm....this is the way the color came out....It was a little "touchy" to image to catch the spike since it's a fairly bright object....although small.

It's easy to burn out the galaxy without seeing the spike. If I remember right, I took a few short exposures and stacked. I didn't do any major deep exposures.

Thanks

Doug

I think the jet is supposed to be bluish, so you could always see what the rest of it looks like if you adjust the colour to fit the jet?

[Astroman]

M87 is a very bright radio galaxy, James, you're right. It's also bright in X-ray and Gamma. Astrodragon's also right about the bluish jet. This is one of many unusual charachteristics of M87 because the blue color generally comes from light reflecting off dust, like reflection nebulae in the MW. But one thing about elliptical galaxies, of which M87 is one, they're supposed to have been emptied of dust by star formation and consumption of other, smaller galaxies. So, the jet is somewhat of an enigma. It is powered by the supermassive central black hole, but that's about all we know for sure. (Not really. It's about all I know for sure, though) 8)

[qcdougn]

Astroman...Super information about this galaxy....thanks. I saw an image of the jet last year and took my go at it.

So, is it suppossed to be blueish?? I can make that that thing blue if you like...

Maybe I'll get another go at it this winter....I don't think the jet will go away anytime soon...

Doug

[Astroman]

No Doug, the jet should be around long enough for you to get a good image. Or, your grandkids could, if you miss it.

To be honest, I've seen images where it's blue and some where it's not. False coloring is used a lot in studies to augment differences that may not be there otherwise. I'd suggest taking a look at HST Heritage photos or some other big scope site for confirmation.

For newbies here, I'm not much into the "pretty pictures" aspect of astronomy. I'm more into the boring old spectra and narrow wavelength stuff used in real science. Not to be a snob or anything, it's just where my interests are. :sunny:

[FLO]

Had a play

(Image was rotated to match this one from Hubble)

[Astroman]

Here's a couple links to the aforementioned HST image and its caption:

http://heritage.stsci.edu/2000/20/index.html

http://heritage.stsci.edu/2000/20/caption.html

[qcdougn]

Astroman,

Those were great links to the hubble information and description of the jet. ...Thanks also for the rotatating of the image for comparison. Mine isn't a "Hubble" image. But, I did get the essence of the jet.

Doug

[MartinB]

That's neat Doug. so there is another challenge for the rest of us!