... Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. December 7, 1997 . A Distant Cluster of Galaxies . ... Explanation: In this 1994 Hubble Space Telescope photograph , every bright object is a galaxy . ... Photos like this indicate that clusters in the past contained a higher fraction of spirals than do nearby clusters which are usually dominated by elliptical galaxies . ... About APOD > . ...

... The Coma Cluster of Galaxies . ... The Coma Cluster of Galaxies pictured is one of the densest clusters known - it contains thousands of galaxies. Each of these galaxies house billions of stars - just as our own Milky Way Galaxy does. ... Based on recent results, this artist's vision of the double star Phi Persei, 720 light years away, shows a bright, rapidly rotating massive star surrounded by a disk of gas. ... A Distant Cluster of Galaxies . ... Oddly - most of them are spiral galaxies. ...

... December 13, 1997 . The Coma Cluster of Galaxies . ... The Coma Cluster of Galaxies pictured is one of the densest clusters known - it contains thousands of galaxies . Each of these galaxies house billions of stars - just as our own Milky Way Galaxy does. ... In fact, the Coma Cluster is so big it takes light millions of years just to go from one side to the other! Most galaxies in Coma and other clusters are ellipticals , while most galaxies outside of clusters are spirals . ...

M1 image More About M1 Nice Color Picture . ... M16 image More About M16 HST image . ... M31 image More About M31 Nice Color Picture . ... M42 image ; M43 image More About M42/43 Nice Color CCD Picture . M51 image More About M51 Color Image of M51 M51 Supernova . M57 image More About M57 Nice Color CCD Picture Very Deep M57 Image . ... M81 image More About M81 M81 Supernova Ultraviolet Image of M81 More about Ultraviolet Imaging . M82 image More About M82 M82 False Color M82 True Color . ...

... Bad Astronomy . ... Bitesize Astronomy . ... Last week's Snack talked about how black holes can affect the environment around them in such a way as to be very bright . ... It's a common misconception that black holes always have matter swirling into them. ... As this matter gets closer and closer to the black hole it piles up and a large, fairly flat disk forms. This is called the accretion disk , because matter from this disk accretes (that is, falls in) on the black hole. ... 2008 Phil Plait. ...

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... The search for distant objects which can be both galaxies and quasars is one of the most important problems of observational astrphysics, because it allows one to determine cosmological parameters connected with the time of appearence and evolution of stellar systems, large scale structure of the Universe. ... Radio galaxies are important objects to be studied because they are sources of infrared-optical-ultraviolet continuum, emission lines and continual radio emission. ...

Title: A New Model of the Gravitational Lens 0957+561 and a Limit on the Hubble Constant . Authors: Norman A. Grogin , Ramesh Narayan (Harvard Univ.) ... Title: ROSAT/PSPC observation of the distant cluster CL0939+472 . ... Title: Interaction in the Bimodal Galaxy Cluster A3528 . ... Title: Cosmological Implications of Galaxy Cluster Evolution . ... Title: Galaxy Cluster Virial Masses and Omega . ... Matches 201 to 222 from a total of 222 matches for the search pattern galaxy cluster . ...

... In one situation, we can use light from quasars to probe the material between us and them because that light may pass through one or more galaxies or gas clouds on its way to us. The gas inside the galaxies or the intergalactic clouds acts then as a filter, absorbing selected wavelengths from the quasar light. ... Light from a quasar must pass through clouds of gas and even faint galaxies -- each leaving its imprint on the light -- before we receive it here on Earth. ... Gravitational lensing . ...

... Kalirai and Harvey Richer of the University of British Columbia led the study, which began as an investigation of a globular star cluster in the Milky Way galaxy known as NGC 6397. ... Within the population of stars and galaxies behind NGC 6397, the Hubble image revealed a large elliptical galaxy that contains several hundred globular clusters. ... In fact, a single giant star in NGC 6397 appears 10 million times brighter than one of the distant globular clusters. ...

... Galileo was one of the first to study our Milky Way with a telescope in 1610 and he discovered that it was composed of a huge number of faint stars. ... Image Credit: NASA Elliptical Galaxy This image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope shows a good example of an elliptical galaxy at the centre of a galaxy cluster that is over 450 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Centaurus. ... Then the Andromeda galaxy was first classed as a galaxy outside of our own Milky Way. ...

An image of the grand design of spiral galaxy M100 obtained with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope resolves individual stars within the majestic spiral arms. ... Hubble has the ability to resolve individual stars in other galaxies and measure accurately the light from very faint stars. This makes space telescope invaluable for identifying a rare class of pulsating stars, called Cepheid Variable stars embedded within M100's spiral arms. ... 617) 495-7062 . Fax: (617) 495-7356 . ...

... Tonight's Sky . ... Sky this Month . ... Star Atlas . ... stars . ... The Sky This Week: April 1 - 10 . ... Observing springtime deep-sky objects with a large telescope . ... Why do some stars appear to flash a variety of different colors when you look at them through a telescope? ... So, Earthт??s atmosphere will bend some colors from especially bright stars more so than others, which makes the source look like itт??s flashing colors. Get instant access to subscriber content on Astronomy.com! ...

... Special Reports Giant space cloud may be powered by black holes 17:57 23 April 2007 NewScientist.com news service David Shiga An enormous cloud of roiling plasma in space may be drawing its energy from black holes, new observations suggest. Such clouds might be sources for the mysterious particles that occasionally crash into Earth's atmosphere at ultra - high speed. ... But higher energy particles in the cloud may be able to escape, he says. ...

... A radio galaxy is a galaxy that emits an unusually big amount of energy at radio wavelengths. ... Inside of each galaxy with an active nucleus (radio galaxies are among them) there must be a system of a "central machine" responsible for the colossal amount of the emitted energy from radio to gamma ranges. ... Sometimes a radio source in an active galaxy may flare again if the needed conditions appear (a new portion of matter would fall into the furnace of the "central machine"). ...

... The expansion is measured as a number called the Hubble Constant . ... Our value is about 20% lower than the one got with the Hubble Space Telescope in 1994," said Dr Jim Lovell, leader of the team that made the measurement. The Hubble Constant is named after American astronomer Edwin Hubble, who in the 1920s found that other galaxies were moving away from ours. ... The Hubble Constant links the galaxy's distance with its speed." ... A short run-down on the Hubble Constant: . ...

... 1st Announcement IAU Symposium 312 Star Clusters and Black Holes Across Cosmic Time, Beijing, China, Aug. 25-29, 2014 . ... SUBJECT: 1st Announcement IAU Symposium 312 Star Clusters and Black Holes Across Cosmic Time, Beijing, China, Aug. 25-29, 2014 . ... which will be held in Beijing, P.R. China, from August 25-29, 2014, hosted by Chinese Academy of Sciences . ... China), . ... 1st Announcement IAU Symposium 312 Star Clusters and Black Holes Across Cosmic Time, Beijing, China, Aug. ...

... Cosmology and High Energy Astrophysics (Zeldovich-90) | ... 11:2|00:35 |C.Martin |Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) | ... 11:5|00:20 |Coffee | ... polarization microwave background observations | ... 16:2|00:25 |R.Kneissl |Searching for SZ clusters | ... 17:0|00:35 |A.Vikhlinin |Baryon content of galaxy clusters and cosmology| ... CLUSTERS OF GALAXIES | ... 13:0|00:2|F.Durret |Clusters of galaxies seen in X-rays: war and | ... Clusters/Groups/Galaxies | ... black holesOptical observations of | ...

... The Butcher-Oemler Effect Blue Fraction, fB Redshift , z The Butcher-Oemler Effect Blue Fraction, fB Abell 370 Redshift , z Abell 370 a galaxy cluster at z = 0.37 Abell 370 , a galaxy cluster at z = 0.37 large galaxy cluster of order same size as Coma similar cluster velocity dispersion and X-ray gas temperature GMRT ~34 hours on OII] Star Formation Rate Average all 168 [OII] emission galaxies line from Bell 2003 Radio Continuum vs. ...

... Our Sun is part of a huge wheel-shaped collection of stars. ... Astronomers have long suspected it was a very massive black hole, and that every galaxy had such a central mass, created early in the history of the universe. ... However, unless that object happens to be headed directly at the black hole (a relatively small target) it will just swing around and fly away again, like a comet making a pass at the Sun. The velocity acquired in falling towards the black hole also helps it escape. ...