http://www.universetoday.com/2008/10/07/watch-out-galactic-collisions-could-snuff-out-star-formation/ Space and astronomy news Sun, 8 Nov 2009 10:14:11 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 http://www.universetoday.com/2008/10/07/watch-out-galactic-collisions-could-snuff-out-star-formation/comment-page-1/#comment-35724 LLDIAZ Thu, 09 Oct 2008 19:00:05 +0000 http://www.universetoday.com/?p=19269#comment-35724 Is this photo real or a painting. If its real it has to be the sharpest I've ever seen Is this photo real or a painting.
If its real it has to be the sharpest I've ever seen

]]> http://www.universetoday.com/2008/10/07/watch-out-galactic-collisions-could-snuff-out-star-formation/comment-page-1/#comment-35596 Jon Hanford Wed, 08 Oct 2008 22:16:37 +0000 http://www.universetoday.com/?p=19269#comment-35596 As John Mendenhall points out, the 'intergalactic junk' at the bottom right represents gas being tidally stripped from the galaxy NGC 4388 moving through the Virgo Cluster. The paper referencing this result (and M 86 -NGC 4438) can be found at arXiv:0810.0711 by JDP Kenney et al posted on October 3, 2008. By pure happenstance, I was reading a paper by JC Mihos et al published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters Vol. 631, L41-L43, September 20, 2005 entitled 'Diffuse Light in the Virgo Cluster'. Although this paper examined this same region in the Virgo Cluster, the survey looked at continuum light between these galaxies & thus missed the hydrogen alpha emission seen in this current study. Still, this short paper (try googling the Journal reference, its available thru ADS or NED) does show some remarkable, coincidental similarities of this region of the Virgo Cluster. The new paper referenced above addresses both the H-alpha filaments between M 86 & NGC 4438 and the 'green' H-alpha emission seen being stripped away from NGC 4388. Interested readers should check out both papers and compare the images presented in both. Definitely, the Virgo Cluster is an active, dynamic system with various types of intergalactic interactions ongoing simultaneously. Thanks, Nancy, for the link to the NOAO press release which has an 11Mb version of the new M 86-NGC 4438-NGC 4388 image! Awesome! As John Mendenhall points out, the 'intergalactic junk' at the bottom right represents gas being tidally stripped from the galaxy NGC 4388 moving through the Virgo Cluster. The paper referencing this result (and M 86 -NGC 4438) can be found at arXiv:0810.0711 by JDP Kenney et al posted on October 3, 2008. By pure happenstance, I was reading a paper by JC Mihos et al published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters Vol. 631, L41-L43, September 20, 2005 entitled 'Diffuse Light in the Virgo Cluster'. Although this paper examined this same region in the Virgo Cluster, the survey looked at continuum light between these galaxies & thus missed the hydrogen alpha emission seen in this current study. Still, this short paper (try googling the Journal reference, its available thru ADS or NED) does show some remarkable, coincidental similarities of this region of the Virgo Cluster. The new paper referenced above addresses both the H-alpha filaments between M 86 & NGC 4438 and the 'green' H-alpha emission seen being stripped away from NGC 4388. Interested readers should check out both papers and compare the images presented in both. Definitely, the Virgo Cluster is an active, dynamic system with various types of intergalactic interactions ongoing simultaneously. Thanks, Nancy, for the link to the NOAO press release which has an 11Mb version of the new M 86-NGC 4438-NGC 4388 image! Awesome!

]]> http://www.universetoday.com/2008/10/07/watch-out-galactic-collisions-could-snuff-out-star-formation/comment-page-1/#comment-35464 John Mendenhall Wed, 08 Oct 2008 14:38:15 +0000 http://www.universetoday.com/?p=19269#comment-35464 Notice the inter-galactic junk off to the bottom right, also. Notice the inter-galactic junk off to the bottom right, also.

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