A spiral galaxy with a secret
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope – with a little help from an amateur astronomer – has produced one of the best views yet of nearby spiral galaxy Messier 106. Located a little over 20 million light-years away, practically a neighbour by cosmic standards, Messier 106 is one of the brightest and nearest spiral galaxies to our own.
Despite its appearance, which looks much like countless other galaxies, Messier 106 hides a number of secrets. Thanks to this image, which combines data from Hubble with observations by amateur astronomers Robert Gendler and Jay GaBany, they are revealed as never before.
At its heart, as in most spiral galaxies, is a supermassive black hole, but this one is particularly active. Unlike the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way, which pulls in wisps of gas only occasionally, Messier 106’s black hole is actively gobbling up material. As the gas spirals towards the black hole, it heats up and emits powerful radiation. Part of the emission from the centre of Messier 106 is produced by a process that is somewhat similar to that in a laser - although here the process produces bright microwave radiation [1].
As well as this microwave emission from Messier 106’s heart, the galaxy has another startling feature - instead of two spiral arms, it appears to have four. Although the second pair of arms can be seen in visible light images as ghostly wisps of gas, as in this image, they are even more prominent in observations made outside of the visible spectrum, such as those using X-ray or radio waves.
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http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/heic1302/
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...the full range of Messier 106's electromagnetic radiation has always been publicly available to all viewers.
However, until recently we Earthbound observers have only had the capability to perceive a tiny fraction of those emissions. We are very lucky to live in a time when our tools and transformations allow the 'secrets' hidden by our limited perceptions to be presented to us. We are now able to 'see' much more than before.
There is a risk. We are biased, when we build our tools and design our transformations, to capture images that are familiar to us. We look for arms, for rings, for jets, and for beauty as we know it. when we view and combine images to make composites. What are we missing that doesn't conform to our human conceptions of order and beauty?
How incredibly wonderful... and probably incredibly frightening ... it would be to have eyes that capture the whole range of electromagnetic radiation and brains that could meaningfully process that data to create percepts.
Still, a beautiful image of M106.
Thanks for the post n2d. 