6 incredible objects hidden in Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s mind-boggling first image
The highly anticipated VERA C. Rubin Observatory published its first batch of images on Monday June 23, captivating the world with one of the Most detailed instant in space never taken.
Using the largest digital camera in the world, the Rubin Observatory will spend the next 10 years taking an accelerated film from all over the night sky. And for the first beginnings of the telescope, the team revealed an astonishing image that captures more than 10 million galaxies in and around the Virgo group – a group of sparkling galaxies located about 55 million light years from the earth, in the Virgin Constellation.
The complete image of 3,200 megapixels is so vast and detailed that it goes beyond the understanding of human eyes, project scientists said on Monday at a press conference. Fortunately, the Rubin observatory team made a Zoomable and viewable version of the image Available on their website – and it is full of close -ups of cosmic objects, each a work of art in its own right.
To plunge your toes into the overwhelming image, try to do the Observatory’s free online tour “Cosmic Treasury Box of Rubin“We have made – and highlights some of the most amazing sites below, with their contact details included for easy visualization. See if you can spot these cosmic jewels sprinkled throughout the revolutionary image of Rubin.
A “Grand Design” spiral galaxy
Contact details: 185.5, 4.5
Like a huge celestial mirror, the “great design” Spiral Galaxy Messier 61 (M61) gives astronomers an index of what we Milky Way It looks like outside. Displayed face to face – which means that we can see the large “face” of the galaxy, rather than its flat edges – M61 flexes its strong and well -defined spiral arms and has a shiny galactic nucleus housing a supermassive black hole. Although it is located about 55 million light years from the earth, astronomers have studied the shimmering galaxy for hundreds of years; He was detected for the first time in 1779, According to NASAand is visible today through a Good backyard telescope. You can spot it at the bottom of the image of Rubin of the Virgo cluster, just below a smaller and blueer spiral galaxy.
A triple galaxy collision
Contact details: 186.67, 9.0
Three spiral galaxies have become a little too close to comfort in the upper right corner of the new image of Rubin. While some individual spiral arms are still visible, the trio of galaxies becomes visibly stretched in a gravitational showdown which slowly brings them together in a large gas gumbo. Material bridges extend between the deformed galaxies when they slowly merge. These pileups are common; Scientists theorize that our own Milky Way has merged at least a dozen times In the last 12 billion years.
A brilliant and neighboring star
Contact details: 187.83, 7.58
Most objects in the Virgo clusters are located far beyond the borders of our galaxy, but the Rubin observatory has also captured a handful of neighboring stars in its reticues. Identifiable by their propeller type diffraction tips and their reddish glow, these stars are located in our own Milky Way, millions of times closer than the Virgo group. Net diffraction tips and halo -type glow are effects of the diffusion of light inside the telescope optics and can help separate the neighboring stars from distant galaxies.
A group of gargantuan galaxies
Contact details: 186.92, 8.83
Galaxy clusters are the most important objects in the universe linked together by gravity; The Virgo cluster (the object of the first image of Rubin) contains approximately 2,000 orbit galaxies near the other, According to NASA.
But by folding well, well beyond the leading objects in the new image, Rubin shows us what a cluster of galaxy from the outside. Each blurred and orange spot of light in this part of the image is a galaxy containing billions of stars, located billions of light years of the earth. Low gas and dust routes fill the gaps between remote galaxies. Although it is impossible to say it to the naked eye, our domestic galaxy is part of a similar group called Virgin SuperCluster, which contains both the local group (the group of galaxies which includes the Milky Way) and the Virgo cluster.
A pair of galaxies with healthy limits
Contact details: 186.67, 8.83
Two spiral galaxies, as in dignity, seem to have healthy respect for the personal limits of the other; Unlike galactic train wrecks seen elsewhere in the virgo cluster, there is no apparent fusion here. Reason implies a slight optical illusion. While the galaxies appear side by side, one is located much more deeply in space than the other. According to the team from the Rubin Observatory, the right-wing galaxy (NGC 4411) is around 50 million light years of the earth, while its partner on the left (NGC 4411B) is more than 70 million light years. With a lot of space between them – and the two oriented in front of the earth – we can enjoy the sight of the two in an unstructed glory.
A cosmic pancake
Contact details: 185.93, 6.93
Scattered throughout the image, long beams of light light shone inside the spherical halos. If you zoom far enough, you will see that many are spiral galaxies – but they are an inclined edge, the faces pointed out of the earth. Unlike the face to face galaxies, we consider these objects as flattened discs in the shape of pancakes camouflaged in brilliant dust. Even if you look carefully at this galaxy (NGC 4343), you still cannot distinguish your arms in a spiral. But you can see an active galactic nucleus in its center – a supermassive black hole feeding shiny, because it pulls the material towards it at a speed close.
What have you spotted others in the incredible image of Rubin of 3200 megapixels of the Virgo cluster? Leave a comment below with contact details to share your discoveries.
