International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research | 2017 Mar 27
[c]Astronomers have used a radio telescope in outback Western Australia to see the halo of a nearby starburst galaxy in unprecedented detail.
NGC253 starburst galaxy in optical (green; SINGG Survey)
and radio (red; GLEAM) wavelengths. The H-alpha line
emission, which indicates regions of active star formation,
is highlighted in blue (SINGG Survey; Meurer+2006).
Credits: A.D. Kapinska, G. Meurer. ICRAR/UWA/CAASTRO.[/c][hr][/hr]
A starburst galaxy is a galaxy experiencing a period of intense star formation and this one, known as NGC 253 or the Sculptor Galaxy, is approximately 11.5 million light-years from Earth.
“The Sculptor Galaxy is currently forming stars at a rate of five solar masses each year, which is a many times faster than our own Milky Way,” said lead researcher Dr Anna Kapinska, from The University of Western Australia and the International Centre for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) in Perth.
“This galaxy is famous because it’s beautiful and very close to us, and because of what’s happening inside it -- it’s quite extraordinary.”
The Sculptor Galaxy has an enormous halo of gas, dust and stars, which had not been observed before at frequencies below 300 MHz. The halo originates from galactic “fountains” caused by star formation in the disk and a super-wind coming from the galaxy’s core. ...
Spectral Energy Distribution and Radio Halo of NGC 253 at Low Radio Frequencies - A.D. Kapinska et al
- Astrophysical Journal 838(1):68 (20 Mar 2017) DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/aa5f5d
arXiv.org > astro-ph > arXiv:1702.02434 > 08 Feb 2017 (v1), 19 Feb 2017 (v2)