Starship Asterisk*

Edge on NGC 3628

Explanation: Sharp telescopic views of magnificent edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628 show a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes. Of course, this deep galactic portrait puts some astronomers in mind of its popular moniker, The Hamburger Galaxy. The tantalizing island universe is about 100,000 light-years across and 35 million light-years away in the northern springtime constellation Leo. NGC 3628 shares its neighborhood in the local Universe with two other large spirals M65 and M66 in a grouping otherwise known as the Leo Triplet. Gravitational interactions with its cosmic neighbors are likely responsible for the extended flare and warp of this spiral's disk.

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I think, other pictures of M65 show some signs of interaction in the bottom lower right, a faint Veil of stars leading down and away, and to our right. The shape is better, but stars are still being..."flung"....
I think it is just our perspective that we "see" less effects of gravity on it.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070601.html

Great Picture!

:---[===] *

This is an interesting take of a much-photographed object.

To me, this picture actually makes NGC 3628 look like a rocket or missile being fired at an extremely shallow angle up (well, barely "up") and to the left! There are many aspects of this photograph that combine to give me that impression. First of all, the galaxy is leaning very slightly "up" and to the left in this picture. Second, the part that is "down", the right side of the galaxy, flares out more than the left ("upper") part, which makes the whole structure resemble a rocket being launched. (...three, two, one, ignition!) The upper (left) edge of the galaxy looks a bit "squashed together", as if the air in front of it was being compressed by the force of the launch. Turbulent bluish air seems to stream down along the slim dusty-dark "body" of the rocket. The middle of the rocket seems to glow red hot, possibly from a powerful engine in there.

The "rocket" looks huge. Some dust structures in front of the reddest "engine" of the rocket are seen in relatively sharp relief, whereas much of the rest of the rocket seems to be out of focus. It is as if the photographer was taking a picture of a truly monstrously large spaceship being launched to the stars, and being unable to keep more than a small part of the mighty ship in focus.

Ann

APOD Robot wrote: Edge on NGC 3628

Explanation: Sharp telescopic views of magnificent edge-on spiral galaxy NGC 3628 show a puffy galactic disk divided by dark dust lanes.

I can't discuss a puffy galactic disk on the internet! I mean, look at it! It looks ridiculous!

Boomer12k wrote:I think, other pictures of M65 show some signs of interaction in the bottom lower right, a faint Veil of stars leading down and away, and to our right. The shape is better, but stars are still being..."flung"....
I think it is just our perspective that we "see" less effects of gravity on it.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap070601.html

Great Picture!

:---[===] *

Here is a link that clearly shows the tidal tail you are referring to(at least I think that's what you are referring to)
http://www.starpointing.com/ccd/leotrio.html

Beautiful tail, Stephen (and Fabian Neyer)!

Ann

As well as being known as the Hamburger Galaxy, another popular name is the Sandwich Galaxy.

starsurfer wrote:As well as being known as the Hamburger Galaxy, another popular name is the Sandwich Galaxy.

I'm getting hungry!

Really wonderful image today.
And Ann, I enjoyed your analogy/metaphor. It's always interesting to me what (and how) others see what they do in some of the images.

Puffy!
Is the bluish cloud surrounding the puffytidatous wish sandwich unresolved stars, or glowing gas/dust?

[A wish sandwich is two slices of bread and you wish you had some meat in it.]

Wimpy

Ann wrote:Beautiful tail, Stephen (and Fabian Neyer)!

Ann

Yes! Stephen’s link shows that NGC 3628's tidal tail is at least 300,000 Light Years long!

I think I also see what may be a faint irregular dwarf galaxy resembling one of our Magellanic Clouds beneath the center of NGC 3628.

my 1973 Charger did that on a highway once.

Psnarf wrote:Puffy!
Is the bluish cloud surrounding the puffytidatous wish sandwich unresolved stars, or glowing gas/dust?

[A wish sandwich is two slices of bread and you wish you had some meat in it.]

Wimpy

I would assume that we're seeing the light of stars in the galaxy's halo. If it were a huge diffuse cloud of gas and dust glowing blue there would need to be an extremely massive and bright source of radiation emitting a lot of light for the dust to reflect so brightly. We're looking at the galaxy edge-on, so the light from all the stars in the galaxy's halo is concentrated in the two narrow bands above and below the central disk, with no dust lanes or dense concentrations of old yellow stars to obscure the light of the halo stars.

At least that's my understanding, if I'm wrong I'll be grateful to be set right.

And please remember to pay me Tuesday for that hamburger, okay?



P.S. -- This is a beautiful and interesting image (NGC 3628, not Wimpy and his hamburgers)! Thanks Alessandro!

Dagnabit! Now i want one, but don't have the makings on hand. Life can be so frustrating at times.

Psnarf wrote:Puffy!
Is the bluish cloud surrounding the puffytidatous wish sandwich unresolved stars, or glowing gas/dust?

[A wish sandwich is two slices of bread and you wish you had some meat in it.]

Wimpy

The "Milky Road" guy http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090613.html certainly has a lot on his mind. Please pardon my unsophisticated ways. Who could direct me to a good course on using code? I seem to fail at this a lot.

Hey it worked this time Happy Days!!