This is the "Triangulum Galaxy," photographed from my driveway with a new telescope.
The Triangulum Galaxy is hurtling toward the Milky Way Galaxy at 62,000 miles per hour. It's possible that it will collide with us in 4-5 billion years (around the same time when the Andromeda Galaxy will hit us).
This Galaxy is 2.73 million light years away and 60,000 light years across. Given that light travels about 6 trillion miles per year, this galaxy is a healthy (6 trillion) x ( 2.73 million miles) away from us. This light has been traveling for some time to get to us!
The red areas in the arms of the spiral are "star nurseries" (areas where stars are born). This Galaxy forms stars at 10 times the rate of the Andromeda Galaxy.
This Galaxy is the home to many supernovas. A supernova occurs at the end of a star's life, when it quite literally explodes (imagine something 50 times the mass of our sun, exploding in a quarter of a second). The last supernova explosion in the Milky Way occurred in 1604 ("Kepler's Supernova"). Supernovas occur in the Triangulum Galaxy, on the other hand, every 150 years. Some of you may recall that the "Veil Nebula" I posted in August is a supernova remnant.
This photo took about 6 hours in my driveway and was shot with "L+R+G+B" (Luminance, Red, Green, Blue) filters as well as a Hydrogen Alpha filter. The red spots in the spiral arms are ionized Hydrogen.
Full size image is available here: https://astrob.in/2ic0zc/0/ (click "Full Resolution" at the top right and "Plate-solution overlay" if you want to get rid of the identifiers)
The Triangulum Galaxy is hurtling toward the Milky Way Galaxy at 62,000 miles per hour. It's possible that it will collide with us in 4-5 billion years (around the same time when the Andromeda Galaxy will hit us).
This Galaxy is 2.73 million light years away and 60,000 light years across. Given that light travels about 6 trillion miles per year, this galaxy is a healthy (6 trillion) x ( 2.73 million miles) away from us. This light has been traveling for some time to get to us!
The red areas in the arms of the spiral are "star nurseries" (areas where stars are born). This Galaxy forms stars at 10 times the rate of the Andromeda Galaxy.
This Galaxy is the home to many supernovas. A supernova occurs at the end of a star's life, when it quite literally explodes (imagine something 50 times the mass of our sun, exploding in a quarter of a second). The last supernova explosion in the Milky Way occurred in 1604 ("Kepler's Supernova"). Supernovas occur in the Triangulum Galaxy, on the other hand, every 150 years. Some of you may recall that the "Veil Nebula" I posted in August is a supernova remnant.
This photo took about 6 hours in my driveway and was shot with "L+R+G+B" (Luminance, Red, Green, Blue) filters as well as a Hydrogen Alpha filter. The red spots in the spiral arms are ionized Hydrogen.
Full size image is available here: https://astrob.in/2ic0zc/0/ (click "Full Resolution" at the top right and "Plate-solution overlay" if you want to get rid of the identifiers)
