Sunday, March 25, 2012
Barred Spiral
A lot of galaxies have this structure rather than the cloud or continuous spiral shape. This is NGC 1300 in a new composite Hubble photo. Cool to see the regular spiral details in the center. I didn't know about that before. The scientists tell us that there is no massive black hole at the center of this big galaxy, at least none detected yet. Hmm.Does that have anything to do with the structure?
NGC 1300 is classified SB(s)bc which means, I think, that the spiral arms are about mid-range tight. (The classification a is very tight and d is very loose, putting two letters means the tightness is halfway between the two letters).
Labels: NGC 1300
Monday, June 23, 2008
A Big Barred Spiral Galaxy
NGC 1300, 70 million light years away, 100,000 light years across. Nearly half of the spiral galaxies are barred like this one. Ours could be too, for all we know. The scientists say there is no big black hole in the center of this one (and there is in ours). I'm willing to believe them but what's with the spiral structure in the middle of the bar then? And what's the explanation for the asymetry of the sprial arms? Magnificent.
Labels: NGC 1300
