HEAPOW: Rediscovering the LMC (2020 Jul 06)

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HEAPOW: Rediscovering the LMC (2020 Jul 06)

Post by bystander » Mon Jul 06, 2020 6:31 pm

Image HEAPOW: Rediscovering the LMC (2020 Jul 06)

Home to the nearest visible supernova in 400 years, the Large Magellanic Cloud is a unique laboratory for the study of all manner of astrophysical objects and processes: star birth and death, the formation and evolution of black holes and neutron stars, as well as the connection between dark matter and the growth of galaxies. The Large Magellanic Cloud (and its little cousin, the Small Magellanic Cloud) were named for famed explorer Ferdinand Magellan, who saw the clouds during his voyage around the globe in the sixteenth century. The LMC is a small galaxy (1 percent of the mass of the Milky Way) about 200,000 lightyears from earth, near enough to allow earth-bound astronomers a clear view of its contents, far enough away to allow comparisons of the brightness of stars and compact objects without significant distance uncertainties. The image above is a new wide-field X-ray image of the LMC taken by the eROSITA telescope on the SRG satellite observatory, in its parking orbit one and a half million miles (255 billionths of a lightyear) from earth. At the distance of the LMC, the 3 degree scale bar corresponds to about 10,000 lightyears. The image highlights the LMC's four brightest X-ray sources, LMC X-1 (a high mass star orbited by a black hole), LMC X-2 (a low mass star orbited by an accreting neutron star), LMC X-3 (another massive star believed to be orbited by a black hole) and LMC X-4 (still another massive star heated by the intense X-ray emission from a compact companion in close orbit). X-ray images of a number of young supernova remnants are also marked. The encircled region shows the "first (X-ray) light" image obtained by eROSITA in its early check out phase soon after launch. eROSITA will scan over the LMC about 7 more times in the next four years, providing a much deeper view of all the fascinating X-ray sources, known and currently unknown, within our neighbor galaxy.

MPE: Presskit for the eROSITA First All-Sky Survey
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Re: HEAPOW: Rediscovering the LMC (2020 Jul 06)

Post by Ann » Mon Jul 06, 2020 7:14 pm




















The picture at right makes it easier to understand the picture at left. Of course, the picture at right was always available for anyone following the link in bystander's post.

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Re: HEAPOW: Rediscovering the LMC (2020 Jul 06)

Post by neufer » Mon Jul 06, 2020 7:27 pm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Playboy#Rabbit_logo wrote:

<<Playboy's iconic and enduring mascot, a stylized silhouette of a rabbit wearing a tuxedo bow tie, was created by Playboy art director Art Paul for the second issue as an endnote, but was adopted as the official logo and has appeared ever since. A running joke in the magazine involves hiding the logo somewhere in the cover art or photograph. Hefner said he chose the rabbit for its "humorous sexual connotation", and because the image was "frisky and playful". In an interview Hefner explained his choice of a rabbit as Playboy's logo to the Italian journalist Oriana Fallaci: The rabbit, the bunny, in America has a sexual meaning; and I chose it because it's a fresh animal, shy, vivacious, jumping - sexy. First it smells you then it escapes, then it comes back, and you feel like caressing it, playing with it. A girl resembles a bunny. Joyful, joking. Consider the girl we made popular: the Playmate of the Month. She is never sophisticated, a girl you cannot really have. She is a young, healthy, simple girl - the girl next door ... we are not interested in the mysterious, difficult woman, the femme fatale, who wears elegant underwear, with lace, and she is sad, and somehow mentally filthy. The Playboy girl has no lace, no underwear, she is naked, well washed with soap and water, and she is happy.>>
Art Neuendorffer

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Re: HEAPOW: Rediscovering the LMC (2020 Jul 06)

Post by bystander » Mon Jul 06, 2020 7:43 pm

MPE: Presskit for the eROSITA First All-Sky Survey
Click to view full size image 1 or image 2
False colour image of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), our next neighbour galaxy. Covering a larger area than the first light image from eROSITA by a factor of about one hundred, the astronomers are now able to explore the entire galaxy, in particular its X-ray binary population as well as the rich structures seen in the diffuse emission arising from the hot phase of the interstellar medium. Among the brightest sources are X-ray binaries, which were the first to be discovered in the LMC already at the beginning of X-ray astronomy as well as supernova remnants, which can be resolved by eROSITA.

In the annotated image (overlay), the four brightest X-ray sources in the LMC region are marked (LMC X-1 to 4). Also visible are numerous Supernova Remnants (SNR) and many foreground stars, the brightest of which is marked, too. On the bottom right, a zoom is shown into the central region of the LMC, which was the first image captured by eROSITA with its seven telescopes back in October 2019.

Image Credit: Frank Haberl, Chandreyee Maitra (MPE)
Know the quiet place within your heart and touch the rainbow of possibility; be
alive to the gentle breeze of communication, and please stop being such a jerk.
— Garrison Keillor

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