NGC 1097

NGC1097 - ESO - eso0438d.jpg
Autor/Urheber: ESO, Lizenz: CC BY 4.0
Spiral galaxy NGC 1097

It is an almost-true colour composite based on images made with the multi-mode VIMOS instrument on the 8.2-m Melipal (Unit Telescope 3) of ESO's Very Large Telescope. Exposures were taken in three different wavebands which were associated to a given colour : R-band (centred around 652 nm; red), V (540 nm; green) and B (456 nm; blue). The images were taken on the night of December 9 to 10, 2004 in the presence of the President of the Republic of Chile, M. Ricardo Lagos. The observing conditions were very good (seeing well below 1 arcsec). The total exposure was 2.25 min in R, 3 min in V and 6 min in B. The scale is 0.205 arcsec/pix and the image covers a 7.7 x 6.6 arcmin2 region on the sky. All exposures were taken and pre-processed by ESO Paranal Science Operation astronomers. Additional image processing by Henri Boffin (ESO).

Credit: ESO

Coordinates
Position (RA):  	2 46 19.04
Position (Dec): 	-30° 16' 29.62"
Field of view:  	6.85 x 7.74 arcminutes
Orientation:    	North is 0.1° left of vertical

Colours & filters Band	Wavelength	Telescope
Optical B       	456 nm  	Very Large Telescope VIMOS
Optical V       	540 nm  	Very Large Telescope VIMOS
Optical R       	652 nm  	Very Large Telescope VIMOS

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NGC1097 - HST - Potw2211a.jpg
(c) Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Sand, K. Sheth, CC BY 4.0
Eye of the Galaxy

This finely detailed image shows the heart of NGC 1097, a barred spiral galaxy that lies about 48 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Fornax. This picture reveals the intricacy of the web of stars and dust at NGC 1097’s centre, with the long tendrils of dust picked out in a dark red hue. The extent to which the galaxy’s structure is revealed is thanks to two instruments on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope: the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).

The idea that a single image can be taken using two different cameras is not very intuitive. However, it makes far more sense after delving into how beautiful astronomical images like this one are composed. A helpful starting point is to consider what colour is, exactly. Our eyes can detect light waves at optical wavelengths between roughly 380 and 750 nanometres, using three types of receptors, each of which is sensitive to just a slice of that range. Our brain interprets these specific wavelengths as colours. By contrast, a telescope camera like the WFC3 or ACS is sensitive to a single, broad range of wavelengths to maximise the amount of light collected. Raw images from telescopes are always in greyscale, only showing the amount of the light captured across all those wavelengths.

Colour images from telescopes are indirectly possible, however, with the help of filters. By sliding a filter over the aperture of an instrument like the WFC3 or ACS, only light from a very specific wavelength range is let through — one such filter used in this image is for green light around 555 nanometres. This yields a greyscale image showing only the amount of light with that wavelength. This multicolour image of NGC 1097 is composed of images using seven different filters in total.

Credit:

ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Sand, K. Sheth

Coordinates
Position (RA):  	2 46 19.69
Position (Dec): 	-30° 16' 53.40"
Field of view:  	4.90 x 2.61 arcminutes
Orientation:   	North is 48.7° right of vertical

Colours & filters Band	Wavelength	Telescope
Ultraviolet UV	275 nm	Hubble Space Telescope WFC3
Optical u	336 nm	Hubble Space Telescope WFC3
Optical B	438 nm	Hubble Space Telescope WFC3
Optical Strömgren y	547 nm	Hubble Space Telescope WFC3
Optical V	555 nm	Hubble Space Telescope WFC3
Optical I	814 nm	Hubble Space Telescope ACS
Optical I	814 nm	Hubble Space Telescope WFC3
Optical H-alpha + N II	657 nm	Hubble Space Telescope WFC3

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NGC 1097 - Ring of Fire (crop).jpg
Autor/Urheber: Judy Schmidt, Lizenz: CC BY 2.0

This is the core of NGC 1097, featuring a star-forming ring surrounding a supermassive black hole.

<a href="http://www.geckzilla.com/apod/NGC1097.jpg" rel="nofollow">www.geckzilla.com/apod/NGC1097.jpg</a>

HST_9788_03_ACS_WFC_F814W_sci

HST_9788_03_ACS_WFC_F658N_sci

Coiled Galaxy.jpg
NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope has imaged a wild creature of the dark — a coiled galaxy with an eye-like object at its center.The 'eye' at the center of the galaxy is actually a monstrous black hole surrounded by a ring of stars. In this color-coded infrared view from Spitzer, the area around the invisible black hole is blue and the ring of stars, white.

The galaxy, called NGC 1097 and located 50 million light-years away, is spiral-shaped like our Milky Way, with long, spindly arms of stars.

The black hole is huge, about 100 million times the mass of our sun, and is feeding off gas and dust, along with the occasional unlucky star. Our Milky Way's central black hole is tame in comparison, with a mass of a few million suns.

The ring around the black hole is bursting with new star formation. An inflow of material toward the central bar of the galaxy is causing the ring to light up with new stars. And, the galaxy's red spiral arms and the swirling spokes seen between the arms show dust heated by newborn stars. Older populations of stars scattered through the galaxy are blue. The fuzzy blue dot to the left, which appears to fit snugly between the arms, is a companion galaxy. Other dots in the picture are either nearby stars in our galaxy, or distant galaxies.

This image was taken during Spitzer's cold mission, before it ran out of liquid coolant. The observatory's warm mission is ongoing, with two infrared channels operating at about 30 degrees Kelvin (-406 degrees Fahrenheit).

The colors blue, green, and red respectively indicate infrared light of wavelengths 3.6, 4.5, and 8.0 μm (micrometers). The "blue" light has also been subtracted from the "red" in order to enhance the visibility of the dust features.

NGC 1097 and 1097A.jpg
Ultraviolet image of the interacting pair NGC 1097, a barred spiral galaxy, and the small elliptical companion galaxy NGC 1097A.

NGC1097 - ESO VLT - Ann22015a.jpg
Autor/Urheber: (Credit) ESO, Lizenz: CC BY 4.0
ERIS sees first light, capturing a detailed view of the inner ring of NGC 1097

The image consists of a ring of bright pink and blue dusty material. The ring has bright spots, showing where stars are forming. There are darker patches in the ring, where the dust is too dense for light to pass through. In the middle of the ring, there is a bright pink-yellow glow, with a very bright centre. There is a gap between this glow in the middle and the ring, where the background dark Universe peers through.

ERIS, the Very Large Telescope’s newest infrared eye on the sky, captured this stunning image of the inner ring of the galaxy NGC 1097. This galaxy is located 45 million light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Fornax. ERIS has captured the gaseous and dusty ring that lies at the very centre of the galaxy. The bright spots in the ring are stellar nurseries, shown in unprecedented detail. The centre of this galaxy is active, with a supermassive black hole that feeds off its surroundings. 

This image has been taken through four different filters by ERIS’s state-of-the-art infrared imager, the Near Infrared Camera System — or NIX. The filters have been represented here by blue, green, red and magenta, where the last one highlights the compact regions in the ring. To put NIX’s resolution in perspective, this image shows, in detail, a portion of the sky less than 0.03% the size of the full Moon.

Credit:

ESO/ERIS team

Coordinates
Position (RA):	2 46 19.04
Position (Dec):	-30° 16' 29.13"
Field of view:	0.55 x 0.52 arcminutes
Orientation:	North is 0.4° left of vertical

Colours & filters      Band	Telescope
Infrared J	1.28 μm	Very Large Telescope ERIS
Infrared H2	2.068 μm	Very Large Telescope ERIS
Infrared Ks	2.18 μm	Very Large Telescope ERIS
Infrared Br-g	2.172 μm	Very Large Telescope ERIS

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Caldwell Catalogue.jpg
Autor/Urheber: Roberto Mura, Lizenz: CC BY-SA 3.0
Caldwell Catalogue objects.