Post by Corey S Powell

25d

The advances in astronomy during my lifetime have been spectacular.

Left: Image of galaxy pair Arp 107 taken the year I was born, using the Palomar 200" (the world's most powerful telescope at the time).

Right: Image of Arp 107 taken last year by JWST.

https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Arp27.html
https://webbtelescope.org/contents/news-releases/2024/news-2024-132
#science #astronomy #nature

Halton Arp's image of Arp 107, a pair of interacting galaxies, taken in 1966 using the 200" telescope on Mt Palomar.

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Image of Arp 107, a pair of interacting galaxies, taken in 2024 using JWST. The infrared image shows details that are completely invisible in Halton Arp's photograph.

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25d

@coreyspowell I am slightly obsessed with the Arp catalog.

I wrote a bot that posts images of galaxies in the Arp catalog twice a day @ArpBot, so I've spent a lot of time looking at modern and historic images of galaxies.

It's amazing how much better the modern space- and ground-based telescope images are!

Here is Arp 321 or Hickson Compact Group 40 from Halton Arp's original Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies (1966) and the 32nd-anniversary image from Hubble.

https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Arp/Arp81.html
https://hubblesite.org/contents/media/images/2022/012/01FYSACDTCSR43GVXBWTHDFHCT?news=true

A lower-res black and white image of five galaxies that appear close to each other in the sky. At upper left, a spiral galaxy is tilted, appearing wider than it is tall. Above the center is a large elliptical galaxy. Its bright center is surrounded by a fuzzy halo that fades away from the core. Toward the bottom right are three galaxies that appear to touch. The largest is in the center: a tilted nearly edge-on spiral galaxy. To its bottom left is a smaller, tilted spiral galaxy with a glowing white center. One spiral arm appears to touch the galaxy to its right. At the spiral’s bottom right is a lenticular galaxy with a bright core and a fuzzy halo. It seems to touch the large spiral galaxy above it. A few white dots, which are stars, are seen on the black background.

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Five galaxies appear close to each other in the sky. At upper left, a spiral galaxy is tilted, appearing wider than it is tall. It has a glowing yellow center and reddish-brown dust trails that spiral clockwise around it. Above the center is a large elliptical galaxy. Its round, glowing yellow center is surrounded by a fuzzy yellow halo that fades away from the core. Toward the bottom right are three galaxies that appear to touch. The largest is in the center: a nearly vertical, edge-on spiral galaxy. Its glowing yellow core is mostly obscured by reddish-brown dust trails dotted with blue stars. To its bottom left is a smaller, tilted spiral galaxy with a glowing yellow center. Reddish-brown dust trails are dotted with blue stars. One spiral arm appears to touch the vertical galaxy to its right. At the spiral’s bottom right is a lenticular galaxy with a glowing central core in the middle of a hazy yellow disk, appearing almost face-on. It seems to touch the large spiral galaxy above it.

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