galaxy
Tag archives for galaxy
Messier Monday: The Most Blueshifted Messier Object, M86
Posted by Ethan on June 10, 2013 “It’s coming right for us!” -Uncle Jimbo, from South Park Welcome back to another Messier Monday, only here on Starts With A Bang! Each Monday, we take an in-depth look at one of the 110 deep-sky objects that make up the Messier Catalogue, the first accurate and comprehensive deep-sky catalogue of relatively bright, extended celestial objects that…
Messier Monday: The Whirlpool Galaxy, M51
Posted by Ethan on April 15, 2013 
“Upon one occasion, while engaged upon a seven-foot mirror, he did not remove his hands from it for 16 hours together.” -from Caroline Herschel’s obituary Welcome to another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! Each Monday, we highlight a different one of the 110 deep-sky objects that Messier catalogued so that comet-hunters wouldn’t confuse these permanent…
Messier Monday: The Phantom Galaxy at the Beginning-of-the-Marathon, M74
Posted by Ethan on March 11, 2013 
“When you run the marathon, you run against the distance, not against the other runners and not against the time.” -Haile Gebrselassie Welcome to a very special Messier Monday, which just happens to be the twenty-first consecutive week we’ve taken a look at one of the 110 fixed, deep-sky objects that Messier and his collaborators…
Messier Monday: The Triangulum Galaxy, M33
Posted by Ethan on February 25, 2013 
“Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.” -Alfred Lord Tennyson Welcome back, for another Messier Monday here on Starts With A Bang! Each Monday, we’ve been taking a look at one of the 110 Deep-Sky Objects that make up the Messier catalogue, a mix of clusters, nebulae, galaxies and…
Messier Monday: The Gateway Galaxy to Virgo, M60
Posted by Ethan on February 4, 2013 
“The thing’s hollow—it goes on forever—and—oh my God—it’s full of stars!” -Dave Bowman, 2001: A Space Odyssey Back in October, we began a new, weekly series here called Messier Monday. Each Monday, we’ve taken a look at one of the 110 deep-sky objects that make up the Messier Catalogue, nebulous objects that might potentially be…
Messier Monday: The Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, M83
Posted by Ethan on January 21, 2013 
“Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it.” -Vaclav Havel But the spiral is more than a metaphor or a mathematical shape, it’s also the most common feature observed in the galaxies out there in the Universe. There are 27 spiral galaxies…
Messier Monday: A Great Galactic Controversy, M102
Posted by Ethan on December 17, 2012 
“Men… have had the vanity to pretend that the world creation was made for them, whilst in reality the whole creation does not suspect their existence.” -Camille Flammarion Welcome to the latest — and most controversial – Messier Monday, where each week, I’ll take a look at one of the 110 deep-sky objects that make up…
Weekend Diversion: Discovering the Universe
Posted by Ethan on December 16, 2012 
“The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination. It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it.” -Richard Feynman What did you think about, wonder about, and dream about the first time you saw the…
Messier Monday: Bode’s Galaxy, M81
Posted by Ethan on November 19, 2012 
“When you look at the stars and the galaxy, you feel that you are not just from any particular piece of land, but from the solar system.” -Kalpana Chawla Welcome to this week’s Messier Monday, where I pick a new object out of the original catalogue of 110 “faint fuzzies” designed to help comet-hunters avoid…
Messier Monday: An Ancient Globular Cluster, M15
Posted by Ethan on November 12, 2012 
“When your friends begin to flatter you on how young you look, it’s a sure sign you’re getting old.” -Mark Twain Welcome to yet another installment of Messier Monday, where each week, I’ll pick one of the 110 Messier Objects — deep-sky objects catalogued to avoid confusion for comet hunters — to highlight for you. So far,…
