Galactic Chimneys at Wolverine’s Den

Galactic Chimneys

06Mar06

NGC 2841 New from the Chandra X-Ray
Observatory:

This X-ray/optical composite image
of the large spiral galaxy NGC
2841 shows multimillion degree gas
(blue/X-ray) rising above the disk of
stars and cooler gas (gray/optical).

The rapid outflows of gas from
giant stars, and supernova explo-
sions in the disk of a galaxy create
huge shells or bubbles of hot gas
that expand rapidly and rise above
the disk like plumes of smoke from
a chimney. Chandra’s image of NGC
2841 provides direct evidence for
this process, which pumps energy
into the thin gaseous halo that surrounds the galaxy. Galactic chimneys also spread hot, metal enriched gas away from the disk of the galaxy into the halo.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/U. Mass/Q.D.Wang; Optical: NOAO/KPNO

NGC 2481 resides in the constellation Ursa Major, some 130,000 LY distant. It’s an appealing target for astrophotographers as well:

Peter Kukol/Adam Block
Russell Croman
Jim Misti/Robert Gendler

Chandra recently detected a galactic halo spanning some 60,000 LY surrounding NGC 5746, an edge-on spiral galaxy.

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Filed under: Astronomy, Science, Space |

2 Responses to “Galactic Chimneys”

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1 Chris on Mar 6th, 2006 said:

That’s cool. Our Sun is also surrounded by a chimney and bubbles in the ISM: http://www.solstation.com/x-objects/chimney.htm . I’m doing a university project on the mapping of it this year.
2 Matt on Mar 7th, 2006 said:

Very cool indeed!