Chandra Captures A Cradle of Galaxies: HCG62

ackthpt writes "The Chandra X-ray telescope has captured images of HCG 62 (at Harvard's Chandra Page), a compact group of galaxies. (see the related CNN article). Too bright for optical telescopes, but right up Chandra's resume, the formation is described as an early stage of galactic development. The Milky Way, Andromeda and the Magellanic Clouds, known as the Local Group are an older formation."

Too bright for optical telescopes?

[Kotetsu]

Here's [angelfire.com] a photograph of the same area taken with an optical telescope (the DSS Sky Survey). Although the poster meant to say too hot for a visual observation (the X-ray emitting material is invisible to the human eye), there are also significant errors on the Harvard CHANDRA [harvard.edu] page. The main, central elliptical galaxy in Hickson 62 is not NGC 4761, but NGC 4778. NGC 4761 is a fainter nearby spiral (labelled "c"). Also, comparing the CHANDRA image, it would appear that it has accidentally been mirrored right-to-left. NGC 4761 should be the pink blob at about the 2 o'clock position about halfway out in the greenish X-ray cloud.

At magnitude 12.5, the brightest galaxy in this group (NGC 4778) should be visible in a 6-inch telescope under good conditions. An 8- or 10-inch telescope should be capable of showing the brightest 3 galaxies in the group.

Re:Thats a long exposure

[bph]

No it is not. 190 kiloseconds [harvard.edu], now that is a long exposure.

But you don't wait for it, you just get an email with URL or a CD in the mail....

I love satellite astronomy.

Thats a long exposure

[-douggy]

>Chandra for about 50,000 seconds with the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer
And i get bored waiting an hour for each x-ray crystalograph experiment.