James Webb Telescope Takes a Look at the Sombrero Galaxy

The Sombrero Galaxy is about 30 million light-years away and has previously been imaged by Hubble but the power of Webb gives us a clearer more defined look at the funky hat shaped Galaxy.

Why it's so special: It may have been first discovered in 1781, but the aptly named Sombrero Galaxy has never looked like this. This striking new perspective on an icon of the deep sky comes from NASA's James Webb Space Telescope, which has rendered the spiral galaxy that looks like a broad-brimmed Mexican hat both in high resolution and at mid-infrared wavelengths for the first time.

In visible light the Sombrero Galaxy — which we see edge-on from the solar system — has a brilliantly bright white core encircled by thick dust lanes. But in the mid-infrared it takes on an entirely different look. Now looking more like a bullseye than a hat, it's a more elegant, subtle structure with a smooth inner disk and clumps in its outer ring.
www.livescience.com...

a reply to: gortex

Wow! Thank you for posting this. It just shows you really how small we are!

a reply to: gortex

Very cool!

I wonder what's at the center? Pulsar? Quasar? Binary? Cluster?

originally posted by: gortex
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Those pix can't be real, because the "Experts" in the Flat-Earth threads tell us that nothing in the Universe is flat, everything is spherical.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

According to NASA it has a super-duper Massive Black Hole weighing in at around 9 billion solar masses, to put that in context our Super Massive weighs in at 4.3 million Suns.

Even the supermassive black hole, also known as an active galactic nucleus, at the center of the Sombrero galaxy is rather docile, even at a hefty 9-billion-solar masses. It’s classified as a low luminosity active galactic nucleus, slowly snacking on infalling material from the galaxy, while sending off a bright, relatively small, jet.

Also within the Sombrero galaxy dwell some 2,000 globular clusters, collections of hundreds of thousands of old stars held together by gravity. This type of system serves as a pseudo laboratory for astronomers to study stars — thousands of stars within one system with the same age, but varying masses and other properties is an intriguing opportunity for comparison studies.
science.nasa.gov...

a reply to: gortex

In college I was studying Astrophysics pretty heavily, and there comes a point where you realize that the further out you get, the weirder stuff becomes. It also becomes abundantly clear how little we understand about the physics of the Universe. We talk about time and distance, size and mass...and ultimately one can conclude that in less than one nanosecond the entire Universe could completely change forms. We'd never see it of course, but everything we know and understand could just instantly vanish and morph into something we never could have even imagined. Just the sheer power of a single galaxy like the Sombrero galaxy is mind blowing. Add billions and billions more galaxies on top of that, and while someone might be able to express it with engineering notation, it is incomprehensible to the human mind.

After a while, you just look outside at the blue sky, or the stars at night, and come to the peace of enjoying it while you have the opportunity.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

You have experienced the Total Perspective Vortex without the machine. Some can't handle that.

a reply to: gortex

A fascinating advancement in viewing technology since Hubble was launched in 1990.

Maybe the next advancement will enable us to see cities on distant planets.
🤞🏽

originally posted by: KnowItAllKnowNothin

originally posted by: gortex
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Those pix can't be real, because the "Experts" in the Flat-Earth threads tell us that nothing in the Universe is flat, everything is spherical.

It is not flat. Just a spheroid that is at an extreme difference in height to width.

It is very, very wide for it's height.

a reply to: WeMustCare

If we do that, what use would we have for starships? The warp ones not the SpaceX ones.

You never know where you'r going until you get there is quite inspirational for the space going peoples of all planets.

a reply to: BeyondKnowledge3

Ah yes ! Thanks !
I see what you mean.

Like Mrs. Hassenpfeffer, our 6th grade teacher :
The kids used to say it was quicker to go over the top of her, than to go around her.

originally posted by: BeyondKnowledge3
a reply to: WeMustCare

If we do that, what use would we have for starships? The warp ones not the SpaceX ones.

Viewing cities on other planets would likely make humankind get along better with each other.

a reply to: WeMustCare

So, the humans would band together to make ships to go take over those foreign lands? Is that what you are getting at?

I thought humans were past that.

Or perhaps they think those cute balls of fluff inhabitants look tasty just because they look like cotton candy?

Please forgive the first humans to land on Candy Planet for they know not who they eat.

a reply to: BeyondKnowledge3

You view our discovery of advanced civilizations on other planets as something that would make us want to hurt them in some way?

I see it as a discovery that would cause humankind to be more at peace with each other. We wouldn't want to nuke ourselves out of existence, knowing that other civilizations are smarter than that, and would probably shake their heads at humankind in disgust. (And probably be glad we're gone, which would keep our violent civilization from potentially disrupting theirs at some point.)

Gorgeous!

Both the Hubble and Webb photos are awe inspiring.

It's amazing how much more of the Universe we've been exposed to in our lifetimes.

How absolutely kick ass!

a reply to: WeMustCare

I am quite confident in humans doing as humans have done in he past ether intentionally or by accident.

The first war with the Klingons was started because the humans smiled at them during first contact. In their culture, showing teeth is a sign of aggression.

a reply to: gortex
Nice , but what I like most are the green starsystems must be a lot of grass growing there ?

Great post mate.
The stunning beauty in space puts me in mind of the John Masefield poem.

The creation is a beautiful place. Incidentally I have a spider named James Webb who’s taken up residence in my courtyard. We drink coffee in the early morning and trawl the web together 🤙

a reply to: gortex