Blobs and jellyfish in space
Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released today.
The galaxy JW100 features prominently in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with streams of star-forming gas dripping from the disc of the galaxy like streaks of fresh paint. These tendrils of bright gas are formed by a process called ram pressure stripping, and their resemblance to dangling tentacles has led astronomers to refer to JW100 as a ‘jellyfish’ galaxy. It is located in the constellation Pegasus, over 800 million light-years away.
Ram pressure stripping occurs when galaxies encounter the diffuse gas that pervades galaxy clusters. As galaxies plough through this tenuous gas it acts like a headwind, stripping gas and dust from the galaxy and creating the trailing streamers that prominently adorn JW100. The bright elliptical patches in the image are other galaxies in the cluster that hosts JW100.
The image was part of a research project studying star formation in the tendrils of jellyfish galaxies.
The blob near the top of the image is another galaxy in this same galaxy cluster. It is an elliptical galaxy that also happens to have two central nuclei, caused when two smaller galaxies merged. The central regions of each have not yet merged into one.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
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Click for original image.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released today.
The galaxy JW100 features prominently in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, with streams of star-forming gas dripping from the disc of the galaxy like streaks of fresh paint. These tendrils of bright gas are formed by a process called ram pressure stripping, and their resemblance to dangling tentacles has led astronomers to refer to JW100 as a ‘jellyfish’ galaxy. It is located in the constellation Pegasus, over 800 million light-years away.
Ram pressure stripping occurs when galaxies encounter the diffuse gas that pervades galaxy clusters. As galaxies plough through this tenuous gas it acts like a headwind, stripping gas and dust from the galaxy and creating the trailing streamers that prominently adorn JW100. The bright elliptical patches in the image are other galaxies in the cluster that hosts JW100.
The image was part of a research project studying star formation in the tendrils of jellyfish galaxies.
The blob near the top of the image is another galaxy in this same galaxy cluster. It is an elliptical galaxy that also happens to have two central nuclei, caused when two smaller galaxies merged. The central regions of each have not yet merged into one.
Readers!
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black. Your support allows me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Only now does it appear that Washington might finally recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are four ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation or subscription:
4. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above.
Speaking of astronomy, alas, here’s one for your daily file, or even a dedicated post to shred it: “Group of Astronomers Call for ban on light-polluting mass satellite groups like Elon Musk’s Starlink.” They got themselves a full essay in NATURE yesterday, and now other outlets, like the Guardian, have picked it up.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01864-z
LEO Constellations won’t be banned, of course – if for no other reason than too many important governments value them. But my worry is, such campaigns could hobble American constellations with more and more onerous regulatory restrictions, even as China surges ahead unencumbered by such considerations. And of course, it will be American internet and telecommunications consumers who will take the hit.
But one might look at this image you clipped, and note how it was taken. It wasn’t from the surface of the Earth.
Richard M: Nature has become worthless, a leftwing agenda-driven propaganda rag. I hardly look at it anymore, other than to quote it in order to point out its worthlessness.
This is not to say that this campaign against Musk and Starlink will fail. On the contrary, it has every chance of succeeding, because we are no longer ruled by elected legislators, but by a power-hungry administrative state that does not like others to challenge it.
The solution to LEO satellite constellations making life difficult for astronomers is more space telescopes. Everyone has a good day.
GaryMike noted: “The solution to LEO satellite constellations making life difficult for astronomers is more space telescopes”
One would think that with the success of Hubble and JWST, the astronomers would have already gotten this idea in their own heads. There are several other space telescopes that did very well, too.
Unfortunately, the space telescopes that have been built so far have limited lifespans, but earthbound telescopes are easily maintained and can last and be relevant for decades, even a century or more. Hubble and James Webb cost much more than their original budgets, and this track record has put astronomers off the idea. They believe that they can get much more bang for their budgets by building on the ground. These are two shortfalls of letting the government fund, design, and own the space telescopes.
James Webb cost so much because the government wanted to do too many new and untried technologies, and each new technology that caused a delay caused delays in all the other areas, raising the cost of the entire project. What ground-based telescope would have survived a cost increase from $1/2 billion to $10 billion? The space-based JWST did. JWST is doing amazing things, but how much more other astronomy could have been accomplished by now with that money?
Now that we are getting inexpensive and rapid access to space, commercial companies can put together their own space telescopes and maintain them on orbit for much lower cost than the government’s space telescopes. Commercial space has much more incentive for efficiency and effectiveness than government has.
What we really need to do is show the astronomers that amazing commercial space telescopes can be built now for less than they think and can already accomplish by 2035 what the astronomers think they can accomplish by 2050 with their own government funding.
The solution to LEO satellite constellations making life difficult for astronomers is more space telescopes.
This is the way.