I am titled Melissa.
I've seen 20 revolutions around the sun.
Science + SciFi + Art
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Aspiring amateur astronomer.
Science enthusiast.
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This is what I post.
This is what I look like.
01/24/12
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Three-telescope interferometry allows astrophysicists to observe how black holes are fueled
Scientists were able to detect a ring of hot dust that marks the transition from a more distant mixture of gas and dust in a doughnut-shaped structure to a gaseous disk closer to the black hole. — Published: May 17, 2012Imaged Above: Artist’s view of a dust torus surrounding the accretion disk and the central black hole in active galactic nuclei. Credit: NASA E/PO - Sonoma State University, Aurore Simonnet
![hr8938-cephei:
NGC 7129 [x]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m2zemzVp641rswr23o1_1280.jpg)
NGC 7129 [x]
NGC 4449: Star Stream for a Dwarf Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright: R Jay Gabany (Blackbird Obs.),
Insert: Subaru/Suprime-Cam (NAOJ), Collaboration: David Martinez-Delgado (MPIA, IAC), et al.Explanation: A mere 12.5 million light-years from Earth, irregular dwarf galaxy NGC 4449 lies within the confines of Canes Venatici, the constellation of the Hunting Dogs. About the size of our Milky Way’s satellite galaxy the Large Magellanic Cloud, NGC 4449 is undergoing an intense episode of star formation, evidenced by its wealth of young blue star clusters, pinkish star forming regions, and obscuring dust clouds in this deep color portrait. It also holds the distinction of being the first dwarf galaxy with an identified tidal star stream, faintly seen at the lower right. Placing your cursor over the image reveals an inset of the stream resolved into red giant stars. The star stream represents the remains of a still smaller infalling satellite galaxy, disrupted by gravitational forces and destined to merge with NGC 4449. With relatively few stars, small galaxies are thought to possess extensive dark matter halos. But since dark matter interacts gravitationally, these observations offer a chance to examine the significant role of dark matter in galactic merger events. The interaction is likely responsible for NGC 4449’s burst of star formation and offers a tantalizing insight into how even small galaxies are assembled over time.
IC410 (tadpole nebula)
The Galactic Center in Infrared
2MASS Project, UMass, IPAC/Caltech, NSF, NASA
The center of our Galaxy is a busy place. In visible light, much of the Galactic Center is obscured by opaque dust. In infrared light, however, dust glows more and obscures less, allowing nearly one million stars to be recorded in the above photograph. The Galactic Center itself appears on the right and is located about 30,000 light years away towards the constellation of Sagittarius. The Galactic Plane of our Milky Way Galaxy, the plane in which the Sun orbits, is identifiable by the dark diagonal dust lane. The absorbing dust grains are created in the atmospheres of cool red-giant stars and grow in molecular clouds. The region directly surrounding the Galactic Center glows brightly in radio and high-energy radiation, and is thought to house a large black hole.
