Starship Asterisk*

Ann wrote:I believe it is a jet, but it could be a tidal tail too.

http://www.mso.anu.edu.au/~fbriggs/vv29.html wrote:
[c]The Tadpole -OR- The Chainsaw ?[/c]
<<In 2001, Westerbork observations of the disturbed galaxy named VV-29 (alias Arp-188, UGC-10214) showed that there is second smaller galaxy (named VV-29c) that appears behind the western side of the main body of the distorted galaxy. Through its gravitational forces during a close orbital encounter, this second galaxy appears to have been responsible for raising the long `tail of the tadpole' that extends outward from VV-29. VV-29 received wide press coverage during May 2002, when it appeared on the front pages of major newspapers to announce the commissioning of the Hubble Space Telescope's Advanced Camera. The galaxy was featured as the May 2, 2002 Astronomy Picture of the Day. The bright, blue-ish center of the new galaxy VV-29c can be seen through the double spiral arms of VV-29.

Click to view full size image

The mosaic of images [right] compares the HST image with two other diagnostic images: one comes from the Westerbork Radio Synthesis Telescope, and the second from the 2.5m Isaac Newton optical telescope in La Palma. The images are oriented with north upward and east to the left. The color radio image records the emission from the galaxy in the 21cm line of neutral hydrogen, indicating both the extent of the hydrogen gas and its velocity along the line of sight to the observer (using the Doppler effect). The blue end of the spectrum indicates the regions in the galaxy that are approaching us, while the red regions of the `velocity field' indicate recession. The WSRT observations revealed the second galaxy VV29c through its velocity offset, which you can see as the [RECEDING] RED background object that is viewed through the artificial perforation in the velocity field on the right side of the galaxy. The very deep Isaac Newton Telescope image has also been heavily smoothed to bring out the faintest diffuse light levels. This reveals additional structures not seen in the HST image: a faint counter-arm to the right, and a vertical spur on the left side of the main body of the galaxy.
.........................................................
GALAXY NAMES: Galaxies acquire names when their coordinates in the sky are measured and they are listed in catalogs for subsequent study by astronomers. For example, the interesting system pictured above has a large number of `aliases', which result from its listing in several popular catalogs. The first catalog to list it was the Vorontsov-Velyaminov "Atlas and Catalog of Interacting Galaxies", published in 1959. This galaxy was the 29th object listed in the catalog. In fact, Vorontsov-Velyaminov actually split the galaxy into two parts: VV-29a, the main body of the galaxy, and VV-29b, the tidal tail that extends to the east (left) in the pictures. When the third galaxy was discovered in the WSRT data, the observing team (Briggs, Moller, Higdon, Trentham, Ramirez-Ruiz) decided to continue this convention by naming the new galaxy VV-29c. VV-29 has other names, which result from its appearance in many catalogs: Arp-188 (in Arp's "Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies," 1966), CGCG275-023 (in Zwicky's "Catalogue of Galaxies and of Clusters of Galaxies," 1966), UGC10214 (in Nilson's "Uppsala General Catalogue of Galaxies," 1973). When VV-29 had its 15 minutes of fame in May 2002, it appeared under the name "The Tadpole Galaxy," but based on the images above, we will always think of it as "The CHAINSAW"!

PUBLISHED PAPER: 2001, A&A, 380, 418 (Briggs, Moller, Higdon, Trentham, Ramirez-Ruiz). "Did VV 29 collide with a dark Dark-Matter halo?" >>

neufer wrote:

Ann wrote:I believe it is a jet, but it could be a tidal tail too.

Oh, Ann, Ann, Ann.

1) Jets shoot perpendicularly out of the center of galaxies not tangentially out of their arms
and they usually have counter jets shooting out the opposite direction.

2) Jets are made up of particles radiating strongly in radio in x-rays NOT of stars & dust.

3) "The intruder galaxy itself can be seen through foreground spiral arms at the lower left."

neufer wrote:

Ann wrote:I believe it is a jet, but it could be a tidal tail too.

Oh, Ann, Ann, Ann.

1) Jets shoot perpendicularly out of the center of galaxies not tangentially out of their arms
and they usually have counter jets shooting out the opposite direction.
3) "The intruder galaxy itself can be seen through foreground spiral arms at the lower left."

2) Jets are made up of particles radiating strongly in radio in x-rays NOT of stars & dust.

Ann wrote:
So I was wrong. Sue me!

Except I'm a girl. And I'm not named Sue.
Ann

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_Ann_Nivens wrote:
<<Sue Ann Nivens was a fictional character on the long-running TV situation comedy, The Mary Tyler Moore Show. She was played by television perennial Betty White. A forerunner of Martha Stewart, Sue Ann Nivens was the relentlessly perky star of "The Happy Homemaker", on Mary Richards' fictional WJM-TV, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Her show had unusual and sometimes ludicrous themes such as "What's all this fuss about famine?" and "A salute to fruit". Like Stewart, she was a perfectionist; she once confessed she would rather flush her Veal Prince Orloff down a toilet than serve it reheated. She was also consumed with helpful hints for all occasions and always ready to make lemons into lemonade; she once suggested buying colorful, happy goldfish as companions for the infirm and then, when the goldfish died, using them as fertilizer for houseplants.>>

ketarax wrote:

neufer wrote:2) Jets are made up of particles radiating strongly in radio in x-rays NOT of stars & dust.

This is certainly a valid point, however, it doesn't apply universally to everything we call jets, c.f. Messier 87.

bystander wrote:

ketarax wrote: This is certainly a valid point, however, it doesn't apply universally to everything we call jets, c.f. Messier 87.

Are you saying the M87 jet is not a particle stream?

neufer wrote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_Ann_Nivens

Although apparently charming and sweet, Sue Ann was really sardonic, and very, very competitive. Always with her trademarked dimpled smile, she was cruel and snide toward people she did not like or felt threatened by.

xanthoptica wrote:Given that they are more distant objects, I wonder: are we actually seeing redshift in the visible spectrum of these distant objects? Anybody know?

ketarax wrote:

xanthoptica wrote:Given that they are more distant objects, I wonder: are we actually seeing redshift in the visible spectrum of these distant objects? Anybody know?

I've seen that explanation in a caption once or many times, but I'm not qualified to confirm it's the correct one. Perhaps we're seeing the combined effect of redshift and stellar makeup of those early galaxies. In any case, I'm not aware of any relatively close galaxies that appear quite as red.

bystander wrote:

neufer wrote: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sue_Ann_Nivens

Although apparently charming and sweet, Sue Ann was really sardonic, and very, very competitive.

Always with her trademarked dimpled smile, she was cruel and snide toward people she did not like or felt threatened by.

Maybe a little Sue Ann in you?

neufer wrote:Just how exactly do you know about my trademarked dimpled smile

Ann wrote:

ketarax wrote:

xanthoptica wrote:
Given that they are more distant objects, I wonder: are we actually seeing redshift in the visible spectrum of these distant objects? Anybody know?

I've seen that explanation in a caption once or many times, but I'm not qualified to confirm it's the correct one. Perhaps we're seeing the combined effect of redshift and stellar makeup of those early galaxies. In any case, I'm not aware of any relatively close galaxies that appear quite as red.

Yes, the very reddest objects are all reddened by redshift.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extinction_%28astronomy%29 wrote:

Average extinction curves for the MW, LMC2, LMC, & SMC Bar. The curves are plotted versus 1/wavelength to emphasize the UV.

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ketarax wrote:It's a striking image. Any idea if the nebulosity that seems to be centered and normal to the galactic plane of the largest background galaxy is a jet of some sort, or another gravitational tail / stream ?

Ann wrote:
Ketarax, it could be a star stream.
See this image of NGC 4651 for comparison

wagoneer4x4 wrote:
i wish apod would stop using the term "mere" in almost every reference to large astronomical distances.
it stopped being amusing awhile back.

• 1) close foreground objects (versus more distant background objects)
  
  or 2) the nearest of neighboring stars, pulsars, galaxies, clusters of galaxies, etc..

• 1) the cosmic tadpole {A MERE 420 million light-years distant (2010 September 26)}
  
  or 2) the "bullet cluster" {A MERE 3.4 billion light-years away (2008 August 23)}

• And it's old and old it's sad and old it's sad and weary I go back to you, my cold father, my cold mad father, my cold mad feary father, till the near sight of the MERE size of him, the moyles and moyles of it, moananoaning, makes me seasilt saltsick...
  - Finnegans Wake (last page)