Odd phenomenon, or ignorant poster?
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by
Paladin045
In this image, not only does the central hotspot correspond almost perfectly in IR and radio, in both size and shape, but there seems to be a starburst pattern radiating from it in radio, with six distinct arms at approximately equal intervals.
Does anyone know what's causing this?
Posted
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by
enno.middelberg
scientist, translator
What we see here is a very close double-lobed radio galaxy on top of a comparatively bright IR object. By coincidence the radio and IR overlap almost perfectly, but this really is a rare case.
The starburst pattern (aptly named!) in the radio are artefacts arising from the way the radio data were gathered. These data were observed with the Very Large Array, which has the form of an upside-down "Y" (see this image). This pattern, when flipped across the horizontal axis, makes a star with six arms.
It is extremely difficult to make images from radio interferometer data (such as the Very Large Array) without such artefacts. This is an art that only few people in the world have mastered to something approaching perfection.
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