Daily Image
08-06-2006
Spot the 7 differences
| Submitter: | Tom Oosterloo |
| Description: | Four images of the same nearby galaxy M 81 as observed with four different telescopes. Each image high-lights different components of this galaxy. By analysing all these images, the processes that regulate the formation of new stars in M81 can be studied in great detail. The optical image shows the existing stars of M 81 and gives an overall view of the galaxy. The image made with the Spitzer infra-red satellite shows the dust clouds that are heated to a few hundred Kelvin by stars that just formed or that are still forming. The WSRT image shows the hot gas that is ionised by young, massive stars, as well as the radio emission from very energetic particles (cosmic rays) that are created by stars that exploded in regions of star formation (supernovae). Finally, the blue light in the image from the Galex UV satellite shows the locations where stars have formed over the last 100 million years. For more details and examples see: Murphy et al. Astrophysical Journal, 638, 157 (2006) on astro-ph: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0510227. |
| Copyright: | Astron |
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