Andrew Yee
October 14th 05, 04:05 PM
ESO Education and Public Relations Dept.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Text with all links and the photos are available on the ESO
Website at URL:
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2005/phot-31-05.html
--------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
Henri Boffin
European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany
Phone: +49 89 3200 6222
For immediate release: 29 September 2005
ESO Press Photos 31a-b/05
The Colossal Cosmic Eye
ESO's VLT Captures Image of Spiral Galaxy NGC 1350
ESO PR Photo 31a/05
The Colossal Cosmic Eye NGC 1350
Caption: ESO PR Photo 31a/05 is a colour-composite of the
spiral galaxy NGC 1350 taken with FORS2 at the ESO Very
Large Telescope. The image, totalling 16 minutes of
observations, clearly reveals the delicate structures in
this gigantic "eye" as well as many background galaxies.
Eighty-five million years ago on small planet Earth,
dinosaurs ruled, ignorant of their soon-to-come demise in
the great Jurassic extinction, while mammals were still
small and shy creatures. The southern Andes of Bolivia,
Chile, and Argentina were not yet formed and South America
was still an island continent.
Eighty-five million years ago, our Sun and its solar system
was 60,000 light years away from where it now stands [1].
Eighty-five million years ago, in another corner of the
Universe, light left the beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1350,
for a journey across the universe. Part of this light was
recorded at the beginning of the year 2000 AD by ESO's
Very Large Telescope, located on the 2,600m high Cerro
Paranal in the Chilean Andes on planet Earth.
Astronomers classify NGC 1350 as an Sa(r) type galaxy,
meaning it is a spiral with large central regions. In
fact, NGC 1350 lies at the border between the broken-ring
spiral type and a grand design spiral with two major outer
arms. It is about 130,000 light-years across and, hence,
is slightly larger than our Milky Way.
The rather faint and graceful outer arms originate at the
inner main ring and can be traced for almost half a circle
when they each meet the opposite arm, giving the impression
of completing a second outer ring, the "eye". The arms are
given a blue tint as a result of the presence of very young
and massive stars. The amount of dust, seen as small
fragmented dust spirals in the central part of the galaxy
and producing a fine tapestry that bear resemblance with
blood vessels in the eye, is also a signature of the
formation of stars.
ESO PR Photo 31b/05
Mosaic of Galaxies in the Background of NGC 1350
Caption: ESO PR Photo 31b/05 shows some of the background
galaxies present in ESO PR Photo 31a/05. One can see a
wide variety of island universes.
The outer parts of the galaxy are so tenuous that many
background galaxies can be seen shining through them,
providing the observers with an awesome sense of depth.
It is indeed quite remarkable to see that with a total
exposure time of only 16 minutes, the VLT lets us admire
such an incredible collection of island universes wandering
about in the sky. ESO PR Photo 31b/05 is a mosaic of some
of the most prominent galaxies found in the images. Some
of these may reside as far as several billion light-years
away, i.e. the light from these galaxies was emitted when
the Sun and the Earth had not yet formed.
NGC 1350 is located in the rather inconspicuous southern
Fornax (The Furnace) constellation [2]. Recessing from us
at a speed of 1860 km/s [3], it is eighty-five million
light-years away. It is thus most probably not a member of
the Fornax cluster of galaxies, the most notable entity in
the constellation, that lies about 65 million light-years
away and contains the much more famous barred spiral NGC
1365. On the sky, NGC 1350 stands on the outskirts of the
Fornax cluster as can be seen on this image taken with
the 1-m Schmidt telescope at La Silla.
Technical information
ESO PR Photo 31a/05 is a colour-composite image based on
data collected with the FORS2 instrument on the VLT on
January 26, 2000, at a time when Kueyen was still in its
commissioning phase. The observations were done in four
different filters (B -- exposure time: 6 min, V -- 4 min,
R -- 3 min, and I -- 3 min), each associated with a given
colour (blue, green, orange and red, respectively). The
image covers a region of 8x5 arcmin2 on the sky. North is
to the left and East is down. The images were extracted
from the ESO science data archive and further processed by
Henri Boffin (ESO) and the colour composite was made by
Haennes Heyer and Ed Janssen (ESO). An image, reproduced
from the "Exploring the Southern Sky" book by S. Laustsen,
C. Madsen and R.M. West, showing the Fornax Cluster of
Galaxies and the position of several prominent members is
available on the Fornax Cluster page.
Notes
[1]: The Sun rotates around the centre of the Milky Way
and completes a full circle in about 200 million years.
[2]: Fornax (The Furnace) was named by French astronomer
Nicolas Louis de La Caille (1713-1762), when observing from
the Cape between 1750 and 1754. He defined 14 new southern
constellations, giving them the names of scientific
instruments -- e.g. the Telescope -- or names taken from
the fine arts -- e.g. the Sculptor. The original name he
proposed was Fornax Chemica (Latin for chemical furnace)
as a tribute to famous chemist Antoine Lavoisier (1743-
1794).
[3]: This means that, 85 million years ago, when the light we
now record left it, the galaxy was 530,000 light-years closer
to us.
National contacts for the media:
Belgium: Dr. Rodrigo Alvarez, +32-2-474 70 50
Finland: Ms. Terhi Loukiainen, +358 9 7748 8385
Denmark: Dr. Michael Linden-Vørnle, +45-33-18 19 97
France: Dr. Daniel Kunth, +33-1-44 32 80 85
Germany: Dr. Jakob Staude, +49-6221-528229
Italy: Prof. Massimo Capaccioli, +39-081-55 75 511
The Netherlands: Ms. Marieke Baan, +31-20-525 74 80
Portugal: Prof. Teresa Lago, +351-22-089 833
Sweden: Dr. Jesper Sollerman, +46-8-55 37 85 54
Switzerland: Dr. Martin Steinacher, +41-31-324 23 82
United Kingdom: Mr. Peter Barratt, +44-1793-44 20 25
--------------------------------------------------------------
ESO Press Information is available on the WWW at
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/
--------------------------------------------------------------
(c) ESO Education & Public Relations Department
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching, Germany
--------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------
Text with all links and the photos are available on the ESO
Website at URL:
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2005/phot-31-05.html
--------------------------------------------------------------
Contact:
Henri Boffin
European Southern Observatory, Garching, Germany
Phone: +49 89 3200 6222
For immediate release: 29 September 2005
ESO Press Photos 31a-b/05
The Colossal Cosmic Eye
ESO's VLT Captures Image of Spiral Galaxy NGC 1350
ESO PR Photo 31a/05
The Colossal Cosmic Eye NGC 1350
Caption: ESO PR Photo 31a/05 is a colour-composite of the
spiral galaxy NGC 1350 taken with FORS2 at the ESO Very
Large Telescope. The image, totalling 16 minutes of
observations, clearly reveals the delicate structures in
this gigantic "eye" as well as many background galaxies.
Eighty-five million years ago on small planet Earth,
dinosaurs ruled, ignorant of their soon-to-come demise in
the great Jurassic extinction, while mammals were still
small and shy creatures. The southern Andes of Bolivia,
Chile, and Argentina were not yet formed and South America
was still an island continent.
Eighty-five million years ago, our Sun and its solar system
was 60,000 light years away from where it now stands [1].
Eighty-five million years ago, in another corner of the
Universe, light left the beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1350,
for a journey across the universe. Part of this light was
recorded at the beginning of the year 2000 AD by ESO's
Very Large Telescope, located on the 2,600m high Cerro
Paranal in the Chilean Andes on planet Earth.
Astronomers classify NGC 1350 as an Sa(r) type galaxy,
meaning it is a spiral with large central regions. In
fact, NGC 1350 lies at the border between the broken-ring
spiral type and a grand design spiral with two major outer
arms. It is about 130,000 light-years across and, hence,
is slightly larger than our Milky Way.
The rather faint and graceful outer arms originate at the
inner main ring and can be traced for almost half a circle
when they each meet the opposite arm, giving the impression
of completing a second outer ring, the "eye". The arms are
given a blue tint as a result of the presence of very young
and massive stars. The amount of dust, seen as small
fragmented dust spirals in the central part of the galaxy
and producing a fine tapestry that bear resemblance with
blood vessels in the eye, is also a signature of the
formation of stars.
ESO PR Photo 31b/05
Mosaic of Galaxies in the Background of NGC 1350
Caption: ESO PR Photo 31b/05 shows some of the background
galaxies present in ESO PR Photo 31a/05. One can see a
wide variety of island universes.
The outer parts of the galaxy are so tenuous that many
background galaxies can be seen shining through them,
providing the observers with an awesome sense of depth.
It is indeed quite remarkable to see that with a total
exposure time of only 16 minutes, the VLT lets us admire
such an incredible collection of island universes wandering
about in the sky. ESO PR Photo 31b/05 is a mosaic of some
of the most prominent galaxies found in the images. Some
of these may reside as far as several billion light-years
away, i.e. the light from these galaxies was emitted when
the Sun and the Earth had not yet formed.
NGC 1350 is located in the rather inconspicuous southern
Fornax (The Furnace) constellation [2]. Recessing from us
at a speed of 1860 km/s [3], it is eighty-five million
light-years away. It is thus most probably not a member of
the Fornax cluster of galaxies, the most notable entity in
the constellation, that lies about 65 million light-years
away and contains the much more famous barred spiral NGC
1365. On the sky, NGC 1350 stands on the outskirts of the
Fornax cluster as can be seen on this image taken with
the 1-m Schmidt telescope at La Silla.
Technical information
ESO PR Photo 31a/05 is a colour-composite image based on
data collected with the FORS2 instrument on the VLT on
January 26, 2000, at a time when Kueyen was still in its
commissioning phase. The observations were done in four
different filters (B -- exposure time: 6 min, V -- 4 min,
R -- 3 min, and I -- 3 min), each associated with a given
colour (blue, green, orange and red, respectively). The
image covers a region of 8x5 arcmin2 on the sky. North is
to the left and East is down. The images were extracted
from the ESO science data archive and further processed by
Henri Boffin (ESO) and the colour composite was made by
Haennes Heyer and Ed Janssen (ESO). An image, reproduced
from the "Exploring the Southern Sky" book by S. Laustsen,
C. Madsen and R.M. West, showing the Fornax Cluster of
Galaxies and the position of several prominent members is
available on the Fornax Cluster page.
Notes
[1]: The Sun rotates around the centre of the Milky Way
and completes a full circle in about 200 million years.
[2]: Fornax (The Furnace) was named by French astronomer
Nicolas Louis de La Caille (1713-1762), when observing from
the Cape between 1750 and 1754. He defined 14 new southern
constellations, giving them the names of scientific
instruments -- e.g. the Telescope -- or names taken from
the fine arts -- e.g. the Sculptor. The original name he
proposed was Fornax Chemica (Latin for chemical furnace)
as a tribute to famous chemist Antoine Lavoisier (1743-
1794).
[3]: This means that, 85 million years ago, when the light we
now record left it, the galaxy was 530,000 light-years closer
to us.
National contacts for the media:
Belgium: Dr. Rodrigo Alvarez, +32-2-474 70 50
Finland: Ms. Terhi Loukiainen, +358 9 7748 8385
Denmark: Dr. Michael Linden-Vørnle, +45-33-18 19 97
France: Dr. Daniel Kunth, +33-1-44 32 80 85
Germany: Dr. Jakob Staude, +49-6221-528229
Italy: Prof. Massimo Capaccioli, +39-081-55 75 511
The Netherlands: Ms. Marieke Baan, +31-20-525 74 80
Portugal: Prof. Teresa Lago, +351-22-089 833
Sweden: Dr. Jesper Sollerman, +46-8-55 37 85 54
Switzerland: Dr. Martin Steinacher, +41-31-324 23 82
United Kingdom: Mr. Peter Barratt, +44-1793-44 20 25
--------------------------------------------------------------
ESO Press Information is available on the WWW at
http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/
--------------------------------------------------------------
(c) ESO Education & Public Relations Department
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2, D-85748 Garching, Germany
--------------------------------------------------------------