Galaxy on Fire! NASA's Spitzer Reveals Stellar Smoke (Forwarded)
- From: Andrew Yee <ayee@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2006 16:30:55 -0500 (EST)
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Whitney Clavin (818) 354-4673
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.
March 16, 2006
News Release: 2006-037
Galaxy on Fire! NASA's Spitzer Reveals Stellar Smoke
Where there's smoke, there's fire -- even in outer space. A new infrared
image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows a burning hot galaxy whose
fiery stars appear to be blowing out giant billows of smoky dust.
The galaxy, called Messier 82, or the "Cigar galaxy," was previously known
to host a hotbed of young, massive stars. The new Spitzer image reveals,
for the first time, the "smoke" surrounding those stellar fires.
"We've never seen anything like this," said Dr. Charles Engelbracht of the
University of Arizona, Tucson. "This unusual galaxy has ejected an
enormous amount of dust to cover itself with a cloud brighter than any
we've seen around other galaxies."
The false-colored view, online at
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/Media/releases/ssc2006-09/visuals.shtml ,
shows Messier 82, an irregular-shaped galaxy positioned on its side, as a
diffuse bar of blue light. Fanning out from its top and bottom like the
wings of a butterfly are huge red clouds of dust believed to contain a
compound similar to car exhaust.
The smelly material, called polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon, can be found
on Earth in tailpipes, barbecue pits and other places where combustion
reactions have occurred. In galaxies, the stuff is created by stars, whose
winds and radiation blow the material out into space.
"Usually you see smoke before a fire, but we knew about the fire in this
galaxy before Spitzer's infrared eyes saw the smoke," said Dr. David
Leisawitz, Spitzer program scientist at NASA Headquarters in Washington.
These hazy clouds are some of the biggest ever seen around a galaxy. They
stretch out 20,000 light-years away from the galactic plane in both
directions, far beyond where stars are found.
Previous observations of Messier 82 had revealed two cone-shaped clouds of
very hot gas projecting outward below and above the center of galaxy.
Spitzer's sensitive infrared vision allowed astronomers to see the
galaxy's dust.
"Spitzer showed us a dust halo all around this galaxy," said Engelbracht.
"We still don't understand why the dust is all over the place and not
cone-shaped."
Cone-shaped clouds of dust around this galaxy would have indicated that
its central, massive stars had sprayed the dust into space. Instead,
Engelbracht and his team believe stars throughout the galaxy are sending
off the "smoke signals."
Messier 82 is located about 12 million light-years away in the Ursa Major
constellation. It is undergoing a renaissance of star birth in its middle
age, with the most intense bursts of star formation taking place at its
core. The galaxy's interaction with its neighbor, a larger galaxy called
Messier 81, is the cause of all the stellar ruckus. Our own Milky Way
galaxy is a less hectic place, with dust confined to the galactic plane.
The findings will appear in an upcoming issue of the Astrophysical
Journal. Other authors who contributed significantly to this work are
Praveen Kundurthy and Dr. Karl Gordon, both of the University of Arizona.
The image was taken as a part of the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxy
Survey, which is led by Dr. Robert Kennicutt, also of the University of
Arizona.
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory manages the Spitzer Space Telescope mission
for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Science operations are
conducted at the Spitzer Science Center at Caltech. JPL is a division of
Caltech.
For more information about Spitzer, visit
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/spitzer
For more information about NASA and agency programs on the Web, visit
http://www.nasa.gov/home/
.
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