A multitude of strange galaxies
Cool image time! The picture to the right, reduced and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released today. From the caption:
Z 229-15 is one of those interesting celestial objects that, should you choose to research it, you will find defined as several different things: sometimes as an active galactic nucleus (an AGN); sometimes as a quasar; and sometimes as a Seyfert galaxy. Which of these is Z 229-15 really? The answer is that it is all of these things all at once, because these three definitions have significant overlap.
All three classifications involve galaxies with nuclei that are brighter, more energetic, and more massive than the rest of the galaxy. Z229-15 itself is estimated to be 390 million light years away.
Normally I would have cropped the image to center on Z229-15. However, I was struck by the number of other strange galaxies in the distance and on the periphery of the picture. Near the top is a trio of three, none of which appear spiral- or elliptical-shaped. On the right is a galaxy that could be a standard spiral seen edge-on, but its red nucleus is very unusual. And scattered across the bottom half of the image are a number of weirdly shaped galaxies of all types, none of which appear typical.
Be sure to look at the high resolution original. There are more weird galaxies visible there.
Cool image time! The picture to the right, reduced and sharpened to post here, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released today. From the caption:
Z 229-15 is one of those interesting celestial objects that, should you choose to research it, you will find defined as several different things: sometimes as an active galactic nucleus (an AGN); sometimes as a quasar; and sometimes as a Seyfert galaxy. Which of these is Z 229-15 really? The answer is that it is all of these things all at once, because these three definitions have significant overlap.
All three classifications involve galaxies with nuclei that are brighter, more energetic, and more massive than the rest of the galaxy. Z229-15 itself is estimated to be 390 million light years away.
Normally I would have cropped the image to center on Z229-15. However, I was struck by the number of other strange galaxies in the distance and on the periphery of the picture. Near the top is a trio of three, none of which appear spiral- or elliptical-shaped. On the right is a galaxy that could be a standard spiral seen edge-on, but its red nucleus is very unusual. And scattered across the bottom half of the image are a number of weirdly shaped galaxies of all types, none of which appear typical.
Be sure to look at the high resolution original. There are more weird galaxies visible there.