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Science How do you hide a blue whale? Ask Australian astronomers!
Science How do you hide a blue whale? Ask Australian astronomers! | How do you hide a blue whale? Ask Australian astronomers! |
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| by William Atkins | |
| Wednesday, 08 July 2009 | |
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Science DiscussionsThe Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) is the Australian government’s official organization for scientific research. And, its astronomers have been hard at work looking at a massive galaxy not far from Earth (at least in galactic terms). During their research they discovered an image of a blue whale that glows over an area that is 200 times larger than the full Moon (when seen here on Earth). The galaxy is called Centaurus A, and it is within the southern hemisphere constellation Centaurus. Unfortunately, even though Centaurus A is only 14 light-years away from Earth, you can’t just go outside at night and look at it in the sky. It is glowing in the radio wave portion of the electromagnetic radiation spectrum, which makes it invisible to your naked eyes. The galaxy has a supermassive black hole at its center. The CSIRO astronomers say it is 50 times the mass of our Sun. And, this black hole shoots out jets of radio-emitting particles that travel millions of light-years out into space. These spewing out of radio-wave jets is producing the blue whale image that we humans see here on Earth. Page two contains additional information on the blue whale image and the website to go to actually see it. |
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