PIX4612235: Elliptical Galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128) - The galaxy Centaurus A - The galaxy NGC 5128 is located about 13 million light years away from Earth in the southern constellation of Centaurus. This giant galaxy is a powerful radio source known as Centaurus A. The central dark band would be the rest of dust in a spiral galaxy smaller than the giant galaxy would have cannibalized. Centaurus A is an active galaxy whose energy comes from a supermassive black hole. Image made with an amateur instrument, a 130 mm bezel. Designated as radio source Centaurus A, NGC 5128 is one of the most peculiar galaxies in the sky. It is bisected by a dark lane that is considered the dust remnant of a smaller spiral galaxy that was cannibalized by the larger elliptical galaxy. The collision resulted in a burst of star formation. A gigantic black hole equivalent to one billion solar masses resides inside NGC 5128 / Bridgeman Images
PIX4612271: Centaurus A elliptical galaxy (NGC 5128) in Centaurus - The radio galaxy Centaurus A (NGC 5128) - The galaxy NGC 5128 is located about 13 million years away from Earth in the southern constellation of Centaurus. A broad dark band crosses it in the middle, a probable vestige of a collision with a spiral galaxy. This giant galaxy is a powerful radio source known as Centaurus A. It is an active galaxy whose energy comes from a supermassive black hole. Image obtained with a 35 cm telescope, 11 hours of cumulative poses. NGC 5128 is the nearest large elliptical galaxies to our sun at about 13 million light years. It is also the nearest of the giant radio galaxies, possessing an active galactic nucleus (AGN) and optically one of the most luminous galaxies in the sky. In 1949, NGC 5128 was found to be a loud source of radio energy, in fact the loudest radio source in its region of the sky (second overall to Cygnus A), earning it the designation Centarus A. As a radio galaxy it releases 1000 times the radio energy of the Milky Way in the form of large bi - directional radio lobes that extend some 800,000 light years into intergalactic space. The source of the radio emission is very compact, about 10 light days across and is believed to be a supermassive black hole in the galaxy's center with a total mass of 200 million to possibly one billion suns. As a radio galaxy, NGC 5128 belongs to the subgroup of galaxies called Active Galaxies, which include Quasars, Seyfert galaxies, Blazars and Radio Galaxies. Active galaxies are distinguished by their prodigious energy output which cannot be explained by their stellar populations and must have another source. Active galaxies have in common an “Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN)”” which is believed responsible for their prodigious energy output. Supermassive black holes are almost certainly the central engines of Active Galactic Nuclei, powering the enormous outflows of energy whi / Bridgeman Images
PIX4612349: Spiral Galaxy M51 in Hunting Dogs - Spiral galaxy M51 in Canes Venatici - The spiral galaxy M51 (NGC 5194) is located about 37 million years ago - light from Earth. This galaxy is double; two galaxies interact: the largest, NGC 5194, the smallest NGC 5195. M51 (NGC 5194) is located 31 million light - years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs). It was one of the first discoveries made by Charles Messier in 1773, and it was the first galaxy where spiral structure was observed, by Lord Rosse in 1845. A faint companion galaxy, NGC 5195, seen here to the left of M51, is interacting with M51 / Bridgeman Images
PIX4612462: Spiral Galaxy M51 in Hunting Dogs - Spiral galaxy M51 in Canes Venatici - The spiral galaxy M51 (NGC 5194) is located about 31 million years ago - light from Earth. This galaxy is double; two galaxies interact: the largest, NGC 5194, the smallest NGC 5195. M51 (NGC 5194) is located 31 million light - years away in the constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs). It was one of the first discoveries made by Charles Messier in 1773, and it was the first galaxy where spiral structure was observed, by Lord Rosse in 1845. A faint companion galaxy, NGC 5195, seen here to the left of M51, is interacting with M51 / Bridgeman Images
PIX4610496: Galaxies NGC 3169, NGC 3166, NGC 3165 in the Sextant - Galaxies NGC 3169, NGC 3166, NGC 3165 in Sextans - Group of spiral galaxies located about 60 million light years away from Earth. On the left is the galaxy NGC 3169, in the center is the galaxy NGC 3166, in the bottom right is the galaxy NGC 3165. Group of spiral galaxies at about 60 million light years away. Left is NGC 3169, center is NGC 3166, bottom right, NGC 3165 / Bridgeman Images
PIX4610534: Irregular galaxy NGC 3239 in the Lion - Irregular galaxy NGC 3239 in Leo - The irregular galaxy NGC 3239 is located 25 million light years ago in the constellation Lion. Also visible on this image is the supernova SN 2012a (under the bright star in the center of the image). About 40,000 light - years across, irregular galaxy NGC 3239 lies near the center of this field of galaxies in the galaxy rich constellation Leo. At a distance of only 25 million light - years it dominates the frame, sporting a peculiar arrangement of structures, young blue star clusters and star forming regions, suggesting that NGC 3239 (aka Arp 263) is the result of a galaxy merger. Appearing almost on top of the pretty galaxy is a bright, spiky, foreground star, a nearby member of our own Milky Way galaxy almost directly along our line - of - sight to NGC 3239. Still, NGC 3239 is notable for hosting this year's first confirmed supernova, designated SN 2012A. SN 2012A is just below and right of the bright foreground star. Of course, based on the light - travel time to NGC 3239, the supernova explosion itself occurred 25 million years ago, triggered by the core collapse of a massive star / Bridgeman Images
PIX4610646: Spiral Galaxy M96 in Leo - Spiral galaxy M96 in Leo - M96 (NGC 3368), is a spiral galaxy of type Sa. M96 is the brightest member of the Leo I galaxy group, which is also called the M96 group. It also contains M95, M105 and a number of weaker galaxies. M96 is located about 38 million light years away from Earth. The Sa spiral galaxy M96 (NGC 3368) is the second brightest member of the Leo I galaxy grouping, which includes M95 and M105 as well as various other galaxies. It is located a distance of about 37 million light - years / Bridgeman Images
PIX4613547: Spiral galaxy ESO 510 - 13 in Hydra - Spiral galaxy ESO 510 - 13 in Hydra - The spiral galaxy ESO 510 - 13 is about 150 million years away - light from Earth and extends over about 100,000 years - light. Image obtained by the ANTU telescope of the VLT on March 15, 1999. The peculiar spiral galaxy ESO 510 - 13 resembles the famous “” Sombrero”” galaxy, but its equatorial dust plane is pronouncedly warped. Its distance is about 170 million light - years and the size is 100,000 light - years. This three - colour composite was obtained with VLT ANTU and FORS in the morning of March 15, 1999 / Bridgeman Images
PIX4613572: Galaxy of the Wheel of the Charette in the Sculptor - The Cartwheel Galaxy - The ring galaxy of the Wheel of the Charette is about 500 million years away - light from Earth. It is surrounded by a ring of 150,000 years - light of diameter composed of young and very bright stars (detail at the top left). This particular form is the result of a collision, probably with one of the two galaxies on the right. Bottom left, close-up on the nucleus of the galaxy. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope in October 1994. A rare and spectacular head - on collision between two galaxies appears in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope true - color image of the Cartwheel Galaxy, located 500 million light - years away in the constellation Sculptor. The details of star birth resolved by Hubble provide an opportunity to study how extremely massive stars are born in large fragmented gas clouds. The striking ring - like feature is a direct result of a smaller intruder galaxy - - possibly one of two objects to the right of the ring - - that careened through the core of the host galaxy. Like a rock tossed into a lake, the collision sent a ripple of energy into space, plowing gas and dust in front of it. Expanding at 200,000 miles per hour, this cosmic tsunami leaves in its wake a firestorm of new star creation. Hubble resolves bright blue knots that are gigantic clusters of newborn stars and immense loops and bubbles blown into space by exploding stars (supernovae) going off like a string of firecrackers. The Cartwheel Galaxy presumably was a normal spiral galaxy like our Milky Way before the collision. This spiral structure is beginning to re - emerge, as seen in the faint arms or spokes between the outer ring and bulls - eye shaped nucleus. The ring contains at least several billion new stars that would not normally have been created in such a short time span and is so large (150,000 light - years across) our entire Milky Way Galaxy would fit inside. Hub / Bridgeman Images
PIX4613644: Galaxy ESO 69 - 6 - Galaxy ESO 69 - 6 - The galaxy ESO 69 - 6 is about 650 million light years away from Earth in the constellation of the Southern Triangle. This system consists of two interacting galaxies. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope on April 8, 2002. ESO 69 - 6 is an interacting pair of galaxies located in the constellation of Triangulum Australe, the Southern Triangle, about 650 million light - years away from Earth. Long tidal tails sweep out from the two galaxies: gas and stars were stripped out and torn away from the outer regions of the galaxies. The presence of these tails is the unique signature of an interaction. Image taken by the Hubble space telescope on April 8, 2002 / Bridgeman Images
PIX4613666: Galaxy IC 883 - Galaxy IC 883 - The particular galaxy IC 883 (Arp 193) is located about 300 million light years away from Earth in the constellation Hunting Dogs. Its shape presents two antennas, maree tails, suggesting that IC 883 is the fusion of two galaxies. The collision caused a burst of star formations as evidenced by the presence of star clusters in the central region. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope on January 10, 2002. IC 883 displays a very disturbed, complex central region with two tidal tails of approximately the same length emerging at nearly right angles: one diagonally to the top right of the frame and the other to the bottom right. The twin tidal tails suggest that IC 883 is the remnant of the merger of two gas - rich disk galaxies. The collision appears to have triggered a burst of star formation, indicated by a number of bright star clusters in the central region. IC 883 is 300 million light - years away towards the constellation of Canes Venatici, the Hunting Dogs. It is Number 193 in ARP's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies. Image taken by the Hubble space telescope on january 10, 2002 / Bridgeman Images
TEC4613738: Parc des Buttes Chaumont, Paris 19th arrondissement. View of the island with at the highest point a reproduction of the temple known as the Sibyl in Tivoli, architect Gabriel Davioud (1824-1881). On the will of Napoleon III (1808-1873) to provide the laborious classes with green lungs, the park was converted to ancient gypsum quarries, which explains its topography. Adolphe Alphand (1817-1891), grand authorizer of Parisian parks with architect engineer Alfred Darcel (1818-1893) drew up the plan of the park. The landscape artist Pierre Barillet Deschampsæ (1824-1873) planted the park from 1866 onwards. / Bridgeman Images
PIX4613762: Galaxies UGC 1810 and UGC 1813 in Andromede - Galaxies UGC 1810 and UGC 1813 in Andromeda - These two interacting galaxies also called Arp 273 are located about 340 million years ago - light from Earth in the constellation Andromede. Image obtained by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), December 17, 2010. These galaxies also cataloged as Arp 273 lie at a distance of about 340 million light - years. Their distorted appearance is due to gravitational tides as the pair engage in close encounters. The larger of the spiral galaxies, known as UGC 1810, has a disk that is distorted into a rose - like shape by the gravitational tidal pull of the companion galaxy below it, known as UGC 1813. This image is a composite of Hubble Wide Field Camera 3 data taken on December 17, 2010, with three separate filters that allow a broad range of wavelengths covering the ultraviolet, blue, and red portions of the spectrum / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609055: Spiral Galaxy NGC 253 in Sculptor - Spiral galaxy NGC 253 in Sculptor - NGC 253 is the brightest galaxy of the Sculptor's group, the closest galaxy group to the Local Group. It is about 10 million light years away. Image obtained with a 50 cm telescope, composite of several poses. NGC 253 is a spectacular starburst spiral galaxy that is choked with dust. Located about 8 million light years away in the constellation of Sculptor, it is the nearest starburst galaxy to our own Milky Way galaxy. It is called a “” starburst””” galaxy because of the extremely high rate of star formation taking place in its core. Although located at a fairly low declination for northern hemisphere observers, NGC 253 is easily visible in binoculars, and is an amazing sight in a large telescope / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609096: Spiral Galaxy NGC 253 in Sculptor - Spiral galaxy NGC 253 in Sculptor - NGC 253 is the brightest galaxy of the Sculptor's group, the closest galaxy group to the Local Group. It is about 12 million light years away. Image made with the 1.5m Danish telescope of La Silla in Chile in 2009. NGC 253 is a spiral galaxy (about 12 million light years away), a member of a small group straggling across the southern constellation of Sculptor. It appears elongated because we see it almost edge - on. NGC 253 is a prototypical starburst galaxy.This galaxy is also one of the dustiest galaxies known and much of its internal detail is hidden by obscuring matter which can be seen as dark patches against the background stars. Despite the obscuration, two spiral arms and many bluish clusters of stars can be seen around the edge of the galaxy. NGC 253 is so close to us that some of the brightest stars are apparent as individuals within the spiral arms. Image taken with the ESO/Danish 1.5m telescope at La Silla observatory in Chile / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609146: Spiral galaxy NGC 300 in the Sculptor - Galaxy NGC 300 in Sculptor - Located about 7 million years ago - light from Earth, the spiral galaxy NGC 300 belongs to the Sculptor's group. It appears to us as a great object in the sky since its apparent diameter is almost that of the full moon. This photo made by the Hubble space telesope in 2002 shows the central part of the galaxy and reveals myriad stars. NGC 300 is a spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way galaxy. It is a member of a nearby group of galaxies known as the Sculptor group, named for the southern constellation where the group can be found. The distance to NGC 300 is 6.5 million light - years, making it one of the Milky Way's closer neighbors. At this distance, only the brightest stars can be picked out from ground - based images. With a resolution some 10 times better than ground - based telescopes, Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) resolves many more stars in this galaxy than can be detected from the ground / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609181: Spiral galaxy NGC 300 in the Sculptor - Spiral galaxy NGC 300 in Sculptor - Located about 7 million years ago - light from Earth, the spiral galaxy NGC 300 belongs to the Sculptor's group. It appears to us as a great object in the sky since its apparent diameter is almost that of the full moon / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609189: Central region of the spiral galaxy NGC 300 in the Sculptor - Nucleus of spiral galaxy NGC 300 in Sculptor - Located about 7 million years ago - light from Earth, the spiral galaxy NGC 300 belongs to the Sculptor's group. The photo taken by Siding Spring's 3.9m telescope highlights the nucleus of this galaxy. At the centre of the spiral arms of NGC 300 is an unusually compact, star - like nucleus. It is surrounded by a faint but extensive yellow haze, consisting of millions of faint, cool stars. This is the older population, or 'bulge' of NGC 300, a distant equivalent to the (much more numerous) stars that we see in our own galaxy as the brightest part of the Milky Way in Sagittarius / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609229: Spiral galaxy NGC 300 in the Sculptor - Spiral galaxy NGC 300 in Sculptor - Located about 7 million years ago - light from Earth, the spiral galaxy NGC 300 belongs to the Sculptor's group. It appears to us as a great object in the sky since its apparent diameter is almost that of the full moon. Image obtained with a 35 cm telescope, 11 hours of cumulative poses. NGC 300 is located about 7 million light years away in the Sculptor Group in the constellation of the same name. Image taken with 14.5”” RCOS telescope, 11 Hours of exposure / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609235: Spiral galaxy M33 in the Triangle - Spiral galaxy M33 in Triangulum - M33, (NGC 598), the galaxy of the Triangle, is located about 2 million years ago - light from Earth. It belongs to the local group, just like our galaxy or Andromede galaxy. Also known as M33 or NGC 598, the Triangulum Galaxy is part of the Local Group of galaxies, which includes the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) and our galaxy, the Milky Way. M33 is over thirty thousand light - years across, and more than two million light - years away / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609266:
Spiral galaxy M33 in the Triangle - Spiral galaxy M33 in Triangulum - M33, (NGC 598), the galaxy of the Triangle, is located about 2 million years ago - light from Earth. It belongs to the local group, just like our galaxy or Andromede galaxy. This image is a composite of two black and white images obtained from the 1.2m telescope of Mount Palomar, California. Spiral galaxy M33 is a mid - sized member of our Local Group of Galaxies. M33 is also called the Triangulum Galaxy for the constellation in which it resides. About four times smaller (in radius) than our Milky Way Galaxy and the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), it is much larger than the many of the local dwarf spheroidal galaxies. M33's proximity to M31 causes it to be thought by some to be a satellite galaxy of this more massive galaxy. M33's proximity to our Milky Way Galaxy causes it to appear more than twice the angular size of the Full Moon, and be visible with a good pair of binoculars.
This image is a composite from black and white images taken with the Palomar Observatory's 48 - inch (1.2 - meter) Samuel Oschin Telescope as a part of the second National Geographic Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS II). The images were recorded on two type of glass photographic plates - one sensitive to red light and the other to blue and later they were digitized / Bridgeman Images
PIX4609273: Spiral galaxy M33 in triangle - Optical compsite - radio - M33, NGC598 Triangle galaxy about 2 million years ago - light from Earth. It belongs to the local group, just like our galaxy or Andromede galaxy. Visible are stars and star-forming regions (red). The radio image shows the cold hydrogen (blue - purple). Images obtained with the 90 cm telescope of Kitt Peak (visible) and with the radiotelescopes of the VLA and WRST (radio / Bridgeman Images