Posted on 04/09/2021 2:59:46 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer Pierre Mechain. Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles Messier as M106. Modern deep telescopic views reveal it to be an island universe - a spiral galaxy around 30 thousand light-years across located only about 21 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky Way. Along with a bright central core, this stunning galaxy portrait, a composite of image data from amateur and professional telescopes, highlights youthful blue star clusters and reddish stellar nurseries tracing the galaxy's spiral arms. It also shows off remarkable reddish jets of glowing hydrogen gas. In addition to small companion galaxy NGC 4248 at bottom right, background galaxies can be found scattered throughout the frame. M106, also known as NGC 4258, is a nearby example of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, seen across the spectrum from radio to X-rays. Active galaxies are powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole.
For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.
Why does the theme from the original “Star Trek” start playing in my head every time I see an image of other galaxies? :-)
Only 30,000 light years across? It’s a baby galaxy.
Yes, the Milky way is a pretty big galaxy at 150,000 to 200,000 light years across. You get spoiled when you live in a big house.
I’ve seen Messier.
I am Messier.
Wow! Good dental work!
Blueberry shake with squirts of raspberry syrup swirling around!
A false color galaxy shake! (Summer is almost here!)
They may exaggerate the intensity of the colors, but blue and red stars most definitely exist. Blue indicates a higher temperature than red. You can fairly easily see bluish and reddish stars with the naked eye. Also Orange, yellowish and of course white.
"The Albireo system is a double star designated Beta Cygni. The International Astronomical Union uses the name "Albireo" specifically for the brightest star in the system.[21]
Although designated 'beta', it is fainter than Gamma Cygni, Delta Cygni, and Epsilon Cygni and is the fifth-brightest point of light in the constellation of Cygnus.
Appearing to the naked eye to be a single star of magnitude 3, viewing through even a low-magnification telescope resolves it into its two components.
The brighter yellow star (actually itself a very close binary system) makes a striking color contrast with its fainter blue companion.[22] ..."
--Wikipedia
Alberio (double star - one orange, the other blue)
ETL Great chart! Its been a long time since College Science, but they were usually in black and white print describing the size and sequence.
( And at that time I still had a small black and white TV set.)
Here is another nice case where the color difference is evident! (Although I can barely see Proxima Centauri even in the picture!!)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_Centauri
"Alpha Centauri AB is the bright star to the left, which forms a triple star system with Proxima Centauri, circled in red. The bright star system to the right is Beta Centauri."
The author of that book is undoubtedly long dead, otherwise he would probably be accused of male chauvinism, sexism, cisgenderism, and transphobia, and of encouraging unwanted sexual advances. I don't remember the author's name but virtually sure it was a person with XY chromosomes who identified as male.
That must have been a long time ago, because the phrase has been updated twice since then.
In 1988 it was updated to "Oh, Be A Fine Girl, or Guy, Kiss Me."
And in 2019, "Oh, Be A Fine Girl, or Guy, or Gay, Kiss Me."
Lol!
It is a young galaxy. Perhaps a possible new home for us when liberals finally ruin this one......................
It's a small galaxy so the inhabitants are similarly-sized...
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