APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

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APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by APOD Robot » Thu Apr 14, 2022 4:06 am

Image Messier 96

Explanation: Spiral arms seem to swirl around the core of Messier 96 in this colorful, detailed portrait of a beautiful island universe. Of course M96 is a spiral galaxy, and counting the faint arms extending beyond the brighter central region it spans 100 thousand light-years or so. That's about the size of our own Milky Way. M96 is known to be 38 million light-years distant, a dominant member of the Leo I galaxy group. Background galaxies and smaller Leo I group members can be found by examining the picture. The most intriguing one is itself a spiral galaxy seen nearly edge on behind the outer spiral arm near the 1 o'clock position from center. Its bright central bulge cut by its own dark dust clouds, the edge-on background spiral appears to be about 1/5 the size of M96. If that background galaxy is similar in actual size to M96, then it would be about 5 times farther away.

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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by AVAO » Thu Apr 14, 2022 7:43 am

Congratulation. Very nice portrait picture of the galaxy, apart from the fact that the object is shown mirror-inverted.

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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by Ann » Thu Apr 14, 2022 10:59 am

AVAO wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 7:43 am Congratulation. Very nice portrait picture of the galaxy, apart from the fact that the object is shown mirror-inverted.


Indeed, today's APOD is a very nice portrait of M96!

I have been having a discussion with longtry over at the Asterisk Café about mid-distant galaxies, and during our discussion I suddenly remembered that fantastic edge-on background galaxy aligning itself with one of the arms of M96. Because of this, I decided to use today's APOD to talk a little about some of the background galaxies of M96.

APOD 14 April 2022 M96 Mark Hanson annotated.png

1: What a looker! In the ESO image at right, we can really appreciate how reddened the edge-on background galaxy truly is. The galaxy has a very large and extensive disk, hardly any bulge, and a thick mid-plane dust lane. Let's take another look at it:

Background galaxy of M96 ESO.png

Why is this galaxy so red? In view of the fact that it is much more reddened than almost all the other galaxies in the field, at the same time as it is the largest of the background galaxies, the reddening of the galaxy can't be caused by a great redshift and a huge distance. Instead, this galaxy is certainly self-reddened by its own thick dust lane, and it is also almost certainly reddened by dust in the arm of M96. After all, we see the background galaxy right through one of M96's arms.

As for galaxy #2, I am almost positive that it is an elliptical background galaxy, although the ESO image makes it resemble a bright star. The galaxy looks impressive in Mark Hanson's and Mike Selby's APOD. An M96 dust lane cuts in front of it, which is strikingly visible in today's APOD, but barely visible in the ESO image. A small disk galaxy, possibly a barred galaxy, is located to the north of the large elliptical galaxy and is certainly interacting with it.

Galaxy #3 is not visible in the ESO image. It looks like an elliptical galaxy to me, but its core is a little bit whiter and less yellow in color than I would expect.

What kind of creature is galaxy #4? We see it right through the inter-arm region of M96. An enlargement of the ESO image reveals an almost certainly somewhat petite blue spiral galaxy with one prominent arm. Interestingly, there is another, rather similar galaxy on the other side of the inner ring of M96.

As for #5, the ESO image makes it look like one elliptical galaxy with one tiny, extremely distant galaxy(?) on one side of it and a red foreground star on the other side. I think it could also be two distant, redshift-reddened and possibly also dust-reddened galaxies interacting with one another.

Faint galaxy detail from APOD 14 April 2022.png
Faint galaxy detail from APOD 14 April 2022.png (58 KiB) Viewed 3818 times
And finally, what is #6? It looks like there is a faint, slightly bluish center of some sort, surrounded by a huge faint halo. Whatever it is, I think it is too large and too faint to be a distant object. I think it is at the same distance as M96.

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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by orin stepanek » Thu Apr 14, 2022 11:49 am

M_96_LRGB_CDK_1000_8April2022HansonSelbyFinal1024.jpg
Is there only one spiral arm; or 2: yellow lines? Several galaxies
behind M 96; yellow-green ovals! :)
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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by Ann » Thu Apr 14, 2022 1:57 pm

orin stepanek wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 11:49 am Is there only one spiral arm; or 2: yellow lines? Several galaxies
behind M 96; yellow-green ovals! :)
I'd say that there are two spiral arms. They are tightly wrapped.

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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by johnnydeep » Thu Apr 14, 2022 9:11 pm

So, does the background galaxy being cuddled by the warm embrace of an arm of M96 (and that looks just like the better known Needle Galaxy!) have a designation? I could find it identified in the links or posts here.
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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by AVAO » Thu Apr 14, 2022 9:41 pm

johnnydeep wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 9:11 pm So, does the background galaxy being cuddled by the warm embrace of an arm of M96 (and that looks just like the better known Needle Galaxy!) have a designation? I could find it identified in the links or posts here.
2MFGC 8391 is a bit cryptic...
https://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim- ... 2MFGC+8391
Image
https://www.hansonastronomy.com/messier96
Copyright Mark Hanson

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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by AVAO » Thu Apr 14, 2022 9:53 pm

Ann wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 10:59 am
AVAO wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 7:43 am Congratulation. Very nice portrait picture of the galaxy, apart from the fact that the object is shown mirror-inverted.


Indeed, today's APOD is a very nice portrait of M96!
...

As for galaxy #2, I am almost positive that it is an elliptical background galaxy, although the ESO image makes it resemble a bright star. The galaxy looks impressive in Mark Hanson's and Mike Selby's APOD. An M96 dust lane cuts in front of it, which is strikingly visible in today's APOD, but barely visible in the ESO image. A small disk galaxy, possibly a barred galaxy, is located to the north of the large elliptical galaxy and is certainly interacting with it.


Ann
I like galaxy #2 aka PGC 83335 the most - with their dusty ring ;-Jac

Image
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/520 ... fb88_z.jpg
Image
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/520 ... e752_b.jpg
Jac Berne (flickr)

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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by johnnydeep » Thu Apr 14, 2022 10:51 pm

AVAO wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 9:53 pm
Ann wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 10:59 am
AVAO wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 7:43 am Congratulation. Very nice portrait picture of the galaxy, apart from the fact that the object is shown mirror-inverted.


Indeed, today's APOD is a very nice portrait of M96!
...

As for galaxy #2, I am almost positive that it is an elliptical background galaxy, although the ESO image makes it resemble a bright star. The galaxy looks impressive in Mark Hanson's and Mike Selby's APOD. An M96 dust lane cuts in front of it, which is strikingly visible in today's APOD, but barely visible in the ESO image. A small disk galaxy, possibly a barred galaxy, is located to the north of the large elliptical galaxy and is certainly interacting with it.


Ann
I like galaxy #2 aka PGC 83335 the most - with their dusty ring ;-Jac

Image
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/520 ... fb88_z.jpg
Image
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/520 ... e752_b.jpg
Jac Berne (flickr)
It reminds me of a less edge-on view of the Sombrero Galaxy!

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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by johnnydeep » Thu Apr 14, 2022 10:52 pm

AVAO wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 9:41 pm
johnnydeep wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 9:11 pm So, does the background galaxy being cuddled by the warm embrace of an arm of M96 (and that looks just like the better known Needle Galaxy!) have a designation? I could find it identified in the links or posts here.
2MFGC 8391 is a bit cryptic...
https://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim- ... 2MFGC+8391
Image
https://www.hansonastronomy.com/messier96
Copyright Mark Hanson
Thanks!

EDIT: and here’s some more from https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/7027 ... -galaxies/
M96 lies in the foreground of a distant galaxy cluster with a redshift around 0.055, corresponding to light travel time distance of 740 million ly. On the attached photograph, four of these distant galaxies can be seen through the thin spiral arms of M96. The most prominent one is 2MFGC 8391 (z = 0.055513, A = 0.547', mv ~ 14), a large, edge-on spiral galaxy, 742 Mly distant, 112,000 ly in diameter, receding at proper radial velocity of 16,400 km/sec.
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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by Chris Peterson » Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:43 am

johnnydeep wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 10:52 pm EDIT: and here’s some more from https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/7027 ... -galaxies/
M96 lies in the foreground of a distant galaxy cluster with a redshift around 0.055, corresponding to light travel time distance of 740 million ly. On the attached photograph, four of these distant galaxies can be seen through the thin spiral arms of M96. The most prominent one is 2MFGC 8391 (z = 0.055513, A = 0.547', mv ~ 14), a large, edge-on spiral galaxy, 742 Mly distant, 112,000 ly in diameter, receding at proper radial velocity of 16,400 km/sec.
You can't have a light travel time measured in units of distance! That should be 740 million years.
Chris

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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by Ann » Fri Apr 15, 2022 4:26 am

AVAO wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 9:53 pm
Ann wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 10:59 am
AVAO wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 7:43 am Congratulation. Very nice portrait picture of the galaxy, apart from the fact that the object is shown mirror-inverted.


Indeed, today's APOD is a very nice portrait of M96!
...

As for galaxy #2, I am almost positive that it is an elliptical background galaxy, although the ESO image makes it resemble a bright star. The galaxy looks impressive in Mark Hanson's and Mike Selby's APOD. An M96 dust lane cuts in front of it, which is strikingly visible in today's APOD, but barely visible in the ESO image. A small disk galaxy, possibly a barred galaxy, is located to the north of the large elliptical galaxy and is certainly interacting with it.


Ann
I like galaxy #2 aka PGC 83335 the most - with their dusty ring ;-Jac

Image
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/520 ... fb88_z.jpg
Image
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/520 ... e752_b.jpg
Jac Berne (flickr)

I was probably wrong, then. I called galaxy #2 aka PGC 83335 an elliptical galaxy, but with that prominent dust lane, it may be a lenticular galaxy instead.

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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by johnnydeep » Fri Apr 15, 2022 11:59 am

Chris Peterson wrote: Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:43 am
johnnydeep wrote: Thu Apr 14, 2022 10:52 pm EDIT: and here’s some more from https://www.cloudynights.com/topic/7027 ... -galaxies/
M96 lies in the foreground of a distant galaxy cluster with a redshift around 0.055, corresponding to light travel time distance of 740 million ly. On the attached photograph, four of these distant galaxies can be seen through the thin spiral arms of M96. The most prominent one is 2MFGC 8391 (z = 0.055513, A = 0.547', mv ~ 14), a large, edge-on spiral galaxy, 742 Mly distant, 112,000 ly in diameter, receding at proper radial velocity of 16,400 km/sec.
You can't have a light travel time measured in units of distance! That should be 740 million years.
I didn't notice that flaw, but they sort of hedged their bets by saying "light travel time distance"!
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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by Fred the Cat » Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:21 pm

If the universe was like a ball of twine and light could only travel within the filaments, it might only be this big. :roll:

Hmmm, maybe that opens the door for traveling across twine. :wink: My new version of string theory. Cosmic cats would love that! :ssmile:
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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by johnnydeep » Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:59 pm

Fred the Cat wrote: Fri Apr 15, 2022 3:21 pm If the universe was like a ball of twine and light could only travel within the filaments, it might only be this big. :roll:

Hmmm, maybe that opens the door for traveling across twine. :wink: My new version of string theory. Cosmic cats would love that! :ssmile:
That is evocative of Star Trek: Discovery's "spore drive":
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Displacement-activated_spore_hub_drive wrote:"Imagine a microscopic web that spans the entire cosmos. An intergalactic ecosystem. An infinite number of roads leading everywhere."
Gabriel Lorca, 2256 ("Context Is for Kings")
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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by Fred the Cat » Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:00 pm

I am curious what Maryam Mirzakhani would have deduced about the shape of the universe? :(

However it shapes up, mathemeticians get it straight. :yes:
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Re: APOD: Messier 96 (2022 Apr 14)

Post by johnnydeep » Mon Apr 18, 2022 7:16 pm

Fred the Cat wrote: Mon Apr 18, 2022 4:00 pm I am curious what Maryam Mirzakhani would have deduced about the shape of the universe? :(

However it shapes up, mathemeticians get it straight. :yes:
Again, darn your interesting links! There simply aren't enough hours in the day for this slow reader :(
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