Whose Face is This?

It's Reddy Kilowatt! I wondered where he went!

I can find many pictures of the face like monument that the ancient civalisation built on mars but not this picture, is the belt of Orion?

I saw the press release - don't want to be a spoiler, so I'll guess "Waldo"?

I did not see the press release or hear anything about this.

So, an educated guess, knowing it is from NASA, an agency primarily concerned with goings on in space. And that it appears to be a large spherical object, with three other spherical objects in front of it, or, at least 3 exposures of a smaller moving object, with a bright spot on the larger one, my guess would be.......

Jupiter with one of its moons photographed by triple exposure, also showing the "big red spot" on Jupiter which is known to radiate heat, so I would add that this is a color IR photo.

Am I close?

Dang! Just checked the "properties" of the photo and by its title, I am WAAAAAY off!

This is a blind guess but has it got something to do with gravitational lensing?

Hi Masu, I think the two perfect circles led you to this guess - to clarify, they have been put there by NASA to indicated two object, so they are not part of the natural view!

(with arm across face) I said NO CAMERAS!

I'm in the doghouse for sure.

Guessing...

This must be a picture (aerial) of a Rocket Launch site. (I don't know which one).

The bright spot could be that of a rocket fired.

And, I don't know about the other 3 circles (could be some other things around in the Launch Site).

The indication of N and W clearly indicates that this must have been on Earth (or some other planet).

Govinda

The fact that the direction indicator on the photograph shows West to the right of North indicates we are looking up rather than down. This would exclude the rocket launch site and my second thought that it was something on the sea floor.

This seems to suggest that it's a celestial body we are looking at and maybe Jorrie will give us a hint by confirm

Hi Masu, "The fact that the direction indicator on the photograph shows West to the right of North indicates we are looking up rather than down." was well spotted! Yep, it's celestial!

I'm tempted to give more clues, but the characters that respondents see in this face are fascinating - so I'll leave it at that for now...

The arrangement of the bright objects looks surprisingly like the alignment of the Sun and the planets Jupiter Venus and Mars at the moment. Could it be a photograph of them as seen from a spacecraft.

Who would've ever imagined that after 31 years of fruitless searching and dead-end leads that it was to be NASA itself who ultimately discovers Jimmy Hoffa's body. I just hope the feds will have the foresight to whisk Spirit and Opportunity under the Witness Protection Program before they, too, suffer the same fate as the Mars Orbiter. How very sad. Only ten years old and dead as a doornail.

Will those thugs stop at nothing?

Timothy Leary?

My grandson says that picture is definitely Santa Claus.

There is a general laugh, not favourable I must say, at this forum about your comment! Get IT?

When you cannibalize your neighbors, you should expect to get a little acne. hehe.

Well, Mr Jorrie?

Hi Guest, in reply to your "Well, Mr Jorrie?":

Scientists using NASA's Swift satellite stumbled upon a rare sight: two supernovas side by side in one galaxy. Large galaxies typically play host to three supernovas per century. Galaxy NGC 1316 has had two supernovas in less than five months, and a total of four supernova in 26 years. Here's the full story.

It was NASA who put the 'spectacles' on the face, not me...

<It was NASA who put the 'spectacles' on the face, not me...>

------------

I see.

Two supernovas in a few weeks is unusual to say the least. The age of the galaxy as well as the collision could have something to do with it. With a young galaxy you wouldn't expect to see many if any supernovas while in a very old one you would expect to see a fair number as the stars ran out of fuel.

I am new to astronomy but have been fascinated by it since I was a child. Unfortunately I have never had a telescope to use. My darling wife however purchased one for my birthday but we are still waiting for it to be delivered from the USA. Be warned Jorrie you are likely to get a whole host of stupid questions in the not too distant future.

Many thanks for the intriguing photograph

You wrote: "With a young galaxy you wouldn't expect to see many if any supernovas while in a very old one you would expect to see a fair number as the stars ran out of fuel."

This is not always the case. In rich star-forming regions (such as we have here in NGC1316), supernovae tend to occur rather frequently. The reason for this is that these regions tend to produce copius amounts of massive, hot, young stars. You can easily find such regions in color photographs. These stellar nurseries have a distinctive bluish color indicative of hot young stars. The larger the star, the faster it burns its fuel and the more likely it will race to its death as a supernova.

The frequent supernovae in NGC1316 are something of a puzzle, however, as the last four were all of Type 1A. Type 1A supernovae are found in binary star systems where one of the companions is a white dwarf which is orbiting close enough to its companion that it can acrete material from the companion. As this process increases the white dwarf's mass, the mass will eventually reach a critical point where the dwarf suddenly explodes as a supernova. Consequently, this type of supernova is not generally associated with galaxy mergers and prolific star formation.

-e

Hi europium, you wrote: "The frequent supernovae in NGC1316 are something of a puzzle, however, as the last four were all of Type 1A."

Very well summarized post! I guess four SN1As are not too many to be coincidence, perhaps in an area of many binaries?

Of side-interest is that SN1As are the "standard candles" of long range distance measurement. These ones were too close to for use as distance measurement, I think, but they were however very good for better characterization of the type SN1A, thus indirectly improving long range distance measurement.

Jorrie wrote: "I guess four SN1As are not too many to be coincidence, perhaps in an area of many binaries?"

Four Type 1A supernovae over a 26-year period is unusual, but not excessively so. But NGC 1316 is an oddball, even so. For one thing, it hosts a surprising number of "ordinary" novae - well over 100 per year - implying that the galaxy may not only be home to a large number of binaries, as you suggested, but compact binaries at that. Conditions in a compact binary - a prerequisite for Type 1a supernovae - often lead to the progenitor star going nova several times before finally departing this life in a Grand Finale. Unfortunately, NGC 1316 is simply too distant for our instruments to resolve many of the telltale planetary nebulae left behind by such events.

Jorrie wrote: "Of side-interest is that SN1As are the "standard candles" of long range distance measurement. These ones were too close to for use as distance measurement, I think, but they were however very good for better characterization of the type SN1A, thus indirectly improving long range distance measurement."

Yes. Photometric measurements of NGC 1316's SN1As are used to help "calibrate" Type 1a light curves for this purpose.

-e

Hi Europium,

It's good to hear from you and thanks for the info its very interesting. As I said I'm really new to the astronomy gig and need all the help I can get. I am currently in Sydney Australia and we live right on the coast so the light pollution isn't too bad. I also own a house south of Adelaide and the night sky there is spectacular.

Masu wrote: "I am currently in Sydney Australia and we live right on the coast so the light pollution isn't too bad. I also own a house south of Adelaide and the night sky there is spectacular."

Hi Masu. Thanks!

You know, ever since I was a kid I've wanted to visit Australia - maybe even live there! As I'm also very fond of beachfront living, it seems to me that you have the best of both worlds. What an enviable position, to say the least! Naturally, after reading your post I can really sympathize with the starving beggar who lives just downwind of a really fine steakhouse. Really, Masu, it isn't nice to tantalize people in my circumstances. Not nice at all! You should've known better.

As some form of disciplinary action seems inevitable, please allow me to even the score (a little) by posting a few pix of my "kids." I work for the McDonald Observatory in Texas.

1. The Hobby-Eberly Telescope (HET). In the background are the domes for the 2.7m (107") Harlan J. Smith telescope and the 2.1m (82") Otto Struve telescope. The HET's primary mirror consists of an array of 91 identical hexagonal zerodur segments, and measures 11.1 m (36.4 ft) by 9.8 m (32.2 ft). Bet your Aussie backyard doesn't have one of these! hehe.

2. Interior view of the HET. One night I watched one of our guest astronomers set up to take photometric measurements on a "standard candle" Type 1A supernova located in a spiral galaxy around 6 billion LY distant. The SN was very near the galaxy's core but its brightness made it easy to find.

3. Our 2.7m (107") Harlan J. Smith telescope. (First Light: 1968). Little kids who try to push buttons are immediately eaten.

3. Our 2.1 (82") Otto Struve telescope. (First Light: 1939).

4. The 0.8m (30") scope.

5. The robotically-controlled MONET telescope. German schoolkids use this scope in class while it is night here.

5. Using the 2.7 HJS scope to measure the Earth-Moon distance using a laser.

Just let me know if you need any more abuse.

-e

Hi e

Lucky bugger, then again aren't we all. I will need to stick to may 125mm catadioptric with a computer controlled mount telescope for the foreseeable future. That is if it actually ever gets her from the USA.

I hope you do make it to Oz, You can be assured there will be space at our abode put your head down when you do.

Git!

My mom uses that term. As in "Git out of my kitchen!"

-e

Close!

Main Entry: ¹git
Pronunciation: 'git
Function: noun
Etymology: variant of get, term of abuse, from ²get
British : a foolish or worthless person

Main Entry: ²git
dialect variant of GET

I suppose, if a git from East Anglia, UK were to wander into a kitchen in Oklahoma during meal preparation time, spouting gibberish and not offering to help, he would be told to git!

Are, but I would contend that, were I to amble into a domicile in Oklahoma, I would not be enunciating in gibberish, but that the persons with whom I am having a discussion with would, in fact, be listening in gibberish! Further, I would offer as evidence of this, the numerous interviews shown around the world by the most eminent citizen in the USA, the President. Specifically, the most entertaining comment he has ever uttered (in all seriousness) 'The French don't have a word for entrepreneur'! Although, true to form, he didn't actually pronounce the word correctly.

Dude, are you okay? You sure don't sound like the same PlbMac I know.

-e

No worries mate…….it's just that my invisible friend thinks that your invisible friend is nuts!

It's certainly possible. Shit happens. But would your invisible friend care to elaborate?

-e

I've asked at great length, but I'm not getting any answers at the moment!

You are fortunate to live in a country where a telescope in of some use, the only time in nearly 80 years that I have had a decent view of the sky is when I visited Ularu and saw the milky way and Venus bright enough to give a shadow.

I hope you are not disappointed if you don't get views like Keck but with good seeing there is plenty to see with a modest telescope

So you're nearly eighty years old and you've been outside L A only once?