A spiral in the Air Pump
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Acknowledgement: Nick RoseIn this image, it is easy to spot IC 2560's spiral arms and barred structure. This spiral is what astronomers call a Seyfert-2 galaxy, a kind of spiral galaxy characterised by an extremely bright nucleus and very strong emission lines from certain elements — hydrogen, helium, nitrogen, and oxygen. The bright centre of the galaxy is thought to be caused by the ejection of huge amounts of super-hot gas from the region around a central black hole.
There is a story behind the naming of this quirky constellation — Antlia was originally named antlia pneumatica by French astronomer Abbé Nicolas Louis de Lacaille, in honour of the invention of the air pump in the 17th century.
A version of this image was entered into the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Nick Rose.Relevante Bilder
Relevante Artikel
Antlia-GalaxienhaufenDer Antlia-Galaxienhaufen oder Antlia-Cluster ist ein Galaxienhaufen am südlichen Sternhimmel. Er liegt in Richtung des Sternbildes Luftpumpe, dessen Fachbezeichnung Antlia namensgebend ist. Im Abell-Katalog ist der Galaxienhaufen als Abell S0636 erfasst. .. weiterlesen