Hubble looks at a tight cluster of five galaxies
Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to celebrate the telescope’s 32nd year in orbit. This cluster of five galaxies is dubbed Hickson Compact Group 40.
This menagerie includes three spiral-shaped galaxies, an elliptical galaxy, and a lenticular (lens-like) galaxy. Somehow, these different galaxies crossed paths in their evolution to create an exceptionally crowded and eclectic galaxy sampler.
Caught in a leisurely gravitational dance, the whole group is so crowded that it could fit within a region of space that is less than twice the diameter of our Milky Way’s stellar disk.
Though such cozy galaxy groupings can be found in the heart of huge galaxy clusters, these galaxies are notably isolated in their own small patch of the universe, in the direction of the constellation Hydra.
The red streaks in three galaxies is thought to be dust, suggesting that stars are still forming in these galaxies. The vertical galaxy on the right is seen edge on. Note too the tilted ring that appears to surround the galaxy on the left.
As for Hubble’s anniversary, the press release notes that since launch in 1990 the space telescope has made 1.5 million observations covering 50,000 heavenly objects, an archive of data available to anyone to access.
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:
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Click for full image.
Cool image time! The photo to the right, cropped and reduced to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope to celebrate the telescope’s 32nd year in orbit. This cluster of five galaxies is dubbed Hickson Compact Group 40.
This menagerie includes three spiral-shaped galaxies, an elliptical galaxy, and a lenticular (lens-like) galaxy. Somehow, these different galaxies crossed paths in their evolution to create an exceptionally crowded and eclectic galaxy sampler.
Caught in a leisurely gravitational dance, the whole group is so crowded that it could fit within a region of space that is less than twice the diameter of our Milky Way’s stellar disk.
Though such cozy galaxy groupings can be found in the heart of huge galaxy clusters, these galaxies are notably isolated in their own small patch of the universe, in the direction of the constellation Hydra.
The red streaks in three galaxies is thought to be dust, suggesting that stars are still forming in these galaxies. The vertical galaxy on the right is seen edge on. Note too the tilted ring that appears to surround the galaxy on the left.
As for Hubble’s anniversary, the press release notes that since launch in 1990 the space telescope has made 1.5 million observations covering 50,000 heavenly objects, an archive of data available to anyone to access.
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.
It’s really crazy when you, a human being, sitting in front of your computer screen 13.8 billion years after a moment when time and the material universe began and look at a picture like that and understand that that is what we are and where we come from.
It does not make sense, but there it is all the same.
So crazy.
How many worlds are out there?
A trillion galaxies…..
Over 229 million stars in the Milky Way and still counting…
World’s. ???
Civilizations existing today ???
Civilizations that have risen and fallen Over at least Ten Billion years…….
YIKKERS
If only we were in one of those and were a moon of Saturn- the VIEW!
I think the ultimate question that we have to ask ourselves is:
What if any is the limit of our capacity to understand it all?
We must face the fact that we may not have that capacity. There exist things that we observe that we are just unable to rationally understand and explain.
Just like an ape can never, ever, ever understand the value of pie, we may only be able to see and understand just so much.
And I suppose that humanity may be able to fashion some degree of AI leverage that allows us to see further than we are able to see much like the Hubble and WEB space telescopes provide. But do we have the capacity to understand what we observe either here on planet earth or in the expanse of the universe?
How will we know the difference?
The value of pie depends on how hungry you are.
I like cherry pie ;)
I have wondered what happened to Hubble I thought it might have been deactivated
Pie are round,
Cornbread are square :)
Pi ?
I Love rhubarb pie.
I propose that it is very fine to acknowledge the term “Mystery”, then to sit back and observe those mysteries.
Such Beauty.
Such Mystery.
Peace, be Still.
Jeff Wright observed: “If only we were in one of those and were a moon of Saturn- the VIEW!”
The Radiation!
The view would be million-dollar, but I think radiation is an underappreciated condition of interstellar (or intrastellar) travel. I think if interstellar travel is viable, we are gong to spend resources on shielding (moving a lot of mass around), or genetic engineering. If we find a way to operate ‘outside’ 4D space, another set of problems. But I’d plan on the old-fashioned method.
Even if we could travel at the speed of light we would still be limited.
Very limited compared to the real size of the universe.
But it would be nice to turn around and look back at the earth once in a while.
This post prompted me and my astronomy buddies to try to observe this object. It was positioned nicely for our evening of observing on April 23, 2022. Here are my notes:
Hickson 40 (PGC27509) (ARP231)
Constellation Hydra
Mag +13.77
Distance 300 Mly
Observing Location: Bonanza Conservation Area, Caldwell County Missouri
Transparency: Excellent
Seeing: Excellent
Power: 310X
Temperature: 52 degrees F
Wind: South at 3 knots
Date: April 23, 2022
Time: 10:23PM local CDT
Instrument: Newtonian, 18.5″ mirror @ f/3.5
Tight group that appears as one lumpy object, very faint, very small, round with faint lumps apparent with averted vision, these lobes are the adjacent Hickson 40b, 40c, 40d, and were glimpsed intermittently.
(Previously posted in the wrong topic.)