Ever Infrared Maps of Super-Luminous Galaxies
Institute for Astronomy | University of Hawaii | 2017 Jun 06
[c][attachment=0]Arp84[1].jpg[/attachment][/c][hr][/hr]An international team of astronomers has used the Herschel Space Observatory to take far-infrared images of the 200 most infrared-luminous galaxies in the Local Universe. Initially cataloged by the NASA Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) in 1984 as part of the first all-sky survey at far-infrared wavelengths, these galaxies are thought to be forming stars up to 100 times faster than normal galaxies such as our Milky Way, as well as growing super massive black holes at their centers.
These exotic sources have been the subject of intense observational study with nearly all of the world's ground-based and space observatories, and the data are being made available to the public as part of the Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey (GOALS). Optical observations of the 200 GOALS sources have clearly shown that rather than being a single "normal" galaxy, the majority of these sources are actually merging galaxy pairs with highly distorted structures, including regions of intense star formation as well as regions of heavy dust obscuration. The new observations by Herschel are allowing astronomers to construct a clearer picture of the gas and dust that provides the fuel for the enormous energy output that will eventually help reshape these objects.
Astronomers have long known that our Milky Way Galaxy will collide with its closest neighbor the Andromeda Galaxy in the distant future. Just as how Newton realized that the Earth's gravitational pull causes objects to fall to the ground, the mutual gravitational pull between the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies will produce a spectacular collision approximately 4 billion years in the future. ...
The Great Observatories All-Sky LIRG Survey: Herschel Image Atlas and Aperture Photometry - Jason K. Chu et al
- Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series 229(2):25 (2017 Apr) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4365/aa5d15
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1702.01756 > 06 Feb 2017