Chandra has a fun press release on some clashing galaxies, one active
At 1.4 billion light years, I have to say 3C321 is a nice galaxy, but I don't believe that the jet can transform planets' atmospheres in the target galaxy.
Planetary atmospheres have surprisingly high column densities and at 20,000+ light years even a full blown quasar jet has a hard time doing much. Hard to know for sure without knowing the actual mechanical luminousity of the jet, but unlikely.
Pretty though. The hi-res animations are worth a click
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Where there is an observatory and a telescope, we expect that any eyes will see new worlds at once. -Henry D. Thoreau
20 years ago tomorrow, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched into orbit.
It doesn't look that impressive, and maybe it shouldn't. After all, what is a space telescope? It's a…
It is done! The longest-running and most famous camera in the world, Hubble's WFPC2, has been removed and replaced. Scientists will now get to use the Wide-Field Camera 3 (below), and WFPC2 is headed to the Smithsonian.
You've already gotten a chance to taste what WFPC2 has done for our…
"Where there is an observatory and a telescope, we expect that any eyes will see new worlds at once." -Henry David Thoreau
This past weekend, the Astronomy Picture of the Day was a remarkable shot of the giant spiral galaxy NGC 6872, taken by the Gemini Telescope. (It's not Hubble, but Gemini is…
First light is one of the most important tests of any new telescope. It allows you to look at a well-known object, see if there are any problems with your telescope, and to get a small glimpse of how good your telescope is going to be.
Almost 20 years ago, we launched the Hubble Space Telescope.…
I think this might be that "bully" galaxy my mom heard or saw a blurb on the TV about.
I must say that the neighboring galaxy looks to me like it is in the background. The jet appears to be passing in front of it. I see no evidence in this image for an interaction, nor a good justification for the press release and the hype.
Well, it seems to be the rule that any astronomical discovery, no matter how interesting it is in its own right, immediately gets a gloop of either intergalactic violence or astrobiological portent tipped over it. Or both, as in this case.
It'll be interesting to see how the lack of sodium at Enceladus plays out: is it "Wow - not what we expected! How fascinating!" or "Gah! There goes $xBn of NASA money!"?
Sex and violence always sells...
I think the jet is plausibly impacting the smaller galaxy - the x-ray shock is presumably consistent with high column density ISM
I haven't done a proper calculation of the jet flux at the target, but scaling to known blazar jets I'd guess its brightness at about -6 in the target galaxy, which is noticeable but not exactly damaging. And interesting planetary atmospheres have column densities of 10^32 or something silly.
Now if you load the jet mechanically, or assume very narrow collimation and very flat SED to high enough energies, maybe you can do some upper atmosphere damage - ozone and nitrous oxides. Maybe.
It is in fact the "bully galaxy" - just hear the quote from Neil Tyson on Olbermann.
Don't believe at those distances you can sterilize planets or strip atmospheres.