Current Event: Messier Marathon 2010

It is that season again: Messier Marathon time is arriving!
This year, best date will be around New Moon on March 15.9, 2010 (UT), with primary weekend on March 13/14 and secondary on March 20/21, offering considerable opportunity for full-score of 110 in particular on second date. For more info, including visible planets,
comets, and meteors, look at

• http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/mm2010.html.

Good luck for your marathon!

More marathon pages:

• Messier Marathon Homepage:
  http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/marathon.html,
• Messier Marathon Results page:
  http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/results.html.
• Messier Catalog Homepage:
  http://messier.seds.org/

M42: New IR image, WIYN

The Orion Nebula seen with the infrared eyes of the WIYN High Resolution Infrared Camera (WHIRC) in the emission lines of HeI (1083 nm; blue), FeII (1644 nm; green), and H2 (2122 nm; red).

Credit:
D. Riebel (JHU), M. Meixner (STScI) and NOAO/AURA/NSF

http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/html/im1055.html

SEDS M42 page:
http://messier.seds.org/m/m042.html

Messier Marathon 2009

The results of the Messier Marathon 2009 are available at:
http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/results.html#mm2009

Please contribute results!

The Messier Marathon 2009 webpage is at
http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/mm2009.html

Messier Marathon Home:
http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/marathon.html

Upcoming: Messier Marathon 2009

It is that season again: Messier Marathon time is arriving!
This year, best date will be around New Moon on March 26.7,
2009 (UT), with primary weekend on March 28/29 and secondary
on March 21/22, offering considerably good opportunity for
full-score of 110. For more info, including visible planets,
comets and a supernova, look at

• http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/mm2009.html.

Good luck for your marathon!

More marathon pages:

• Messier Marathon Homepage:
  http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/marathon.html,

• Messier Marathon Results page:
  http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/results.html.

• Messier Catalog Homepage:
  http://messier.seds.org/

Messier Marathon 2008

The results of the Messier Marathon 2008 are available at:
http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/results.html#mm2008

Please contribute results!

The Messier Marathon 2008 webpage is at
http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/mm2008.html

Messier Marathon Home:
http://messier.seds.org/xtra/marathon/marathon.html

M81 and its group: New images

This composite NASA image of the spiral galaxy M81, located about 12 million light years away, includes X-ray data from the Chandra X-ray Observatory (blue), optical data from the Hubble Space Telescope (green), infrared data from the Spitzer Space Telescope (pink) and ultraviolet data from GALEX (purple). The inset shows a close-up of the Chandra image. The object at the center of M81 is considered to be a supermassive black hole that is about 70 million times more massive than the Sun.

Credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Wisconsin/D.Pooley & CfA/A.Zezas; Optical: NASA/ESA/CfA/A.Zezas; UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA/J.Huchra et al.; IR: NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA

Chandra Press Release, June 18, 2008:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/press/08_releases/press_061808.html
Image:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2008/m81/

Nasa’s Hubble Space Telescope, as well as GALEX, were used to obtain deep images from the M81 group, and imaged a number of faint blue blobs, actually large young star clusters. These are aligned along bridges of matter between the galaxies M81, M82 and NGC 3077, and nicknamed Arp’s Loop.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and D. de Mello (Catholic University of America/GSFC)

STScI Press Release, January 8, 2008:
http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2008/02/

Radio astronomers using the NRAO’s Very Large Array (VLA) of radi antennae have found a number of faint, hitherto unknown hydrogen clouds
in the M81 group.

NRAO Press Release, January 10, 2008:
http://www.nrao.edu/pr/2008/m81clouds/

SEDS M81 page:
http://messier.seds.org/m/m081.html

M82: X-ray view by XMM-Newton

M82 was captured in X-rays by a telesope on ESA’s XMM-Newton satellite, featuring its powerful outflow. M82 is actively forming stars, and exhibits a several kpc large outflow, made up of very hot gas produced by supernova explosions. The image has been produced from EPIC data; the colours indicate the energy of the X-rays (red: 0.4-1 keV; green: 1-2 keV; blue: 2-8 keV). The central regions of the galaxy appear blueish because of heavy absorption.

Credit: P. Ranalli, A. Comastri, L. Origlia, R. Maiolino and ESA.

XMM Newton image:
http://xmm.esac.esa.int/external/xmm_science/gallery/public/level3.php?id=1004

SEDS M82 page:
http://messier.seds.org/m/m082.html

M83: New GALEX and VLA images

Nasa’s GALEX UV satellite and the NRAO’s Very Large Array (VLA) radio telescope have been used to create new images of the conspicuous Southern Pinwheel spiral galaxy, M83, and found newly formed stars in far outlying spiral arms.

GALEX Press Release (April 16, 2008):
http://www.galex.caltech.edu/newsroom/glx2008-01r.html

SEDS M83 page:
http://messier.seds.org/m/m083.html

M106: New GALEX image

The conspicuous spiral galaxy M106 was imaged with an UV telescope on Nasa’s GALEX satellite. This image is a two-color composite, where far-ultraviolet light is blue, and near-ultraviolet light is red.

GALEX Feature Story (April 16, 2008):
http://www.galex.caltech.edu/newsroom/glx2008-02f.html
Image:
http://www.galex.caltech.edu/media/glx2008-02f_img01.html

SEDS M106 page:
http://messier.seds.org/m/m106.html

M31 and M101: GALEX images

Nasa’s GALEX UV telescope satellite has imaged two famous spiral galaxies, the Andromeda Galaxy M31 and the Pinwheel Galaxy M101. These images are in false color, 2-color composite: far-UV displayed in blue, near-UV in red.

GALEX Feature Story (February 21, 2008):
http://www.galex.caltech.edu/newsroom/glx2008-01f.html
M31 image:
http://www.galex.caltech.edu/media/glx2008-01f_img01.html
M101 image:
http://www.galex.caltech.edu/media/glx2008-01f_img02.html

SEDS M31 page:
http://messier.seds.org/m/m031.html
SEDS M101 page:
http://messier.seds.org/m/m101.html