Posted on Feb 19, 2020
APOD: 2020 February 19 - UGC 12591: The Fastest Rotating Galaxy Known
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Good morning, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "UGC 12591: The Fastest Rotating Galaxy Known." How fast is fast? The orbital velocity of the International Space Station (ISS) is about 8 km/sec. The estimated orbital velocity of the Earth around the sun is 29.72 km/sec. Now things start to get interesting. Astronomers estimate that the Milky Way rotates at a rate of 244 km/sec. UGC 12591 appears to be rotating at an astounding rate of 480 km/sec. As you can imagine, the mass needed to hold together a galaxy spinning this fast would need to be several times the mass of the Milky Way. At 400 million light years away, the light from UGC 12591 began its journey to Earth back when trees were beginning to form. All those numbers make our pale blue dot in the cosmos seem all the more fragile - and special. How about you?
APOD: 2020 February 19 - UGC 12591: The Fastest Rotating Galaxy Known
Posted from apod.nasa.gov
NASA
Space
Science
Photography
Astronomy
Posted 5 y ago
Responses: 11
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Good morning Maj William W. 'Bill' Price
LTC Stephen F. SP5 Mark Kuzinski COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter Maj William W. 'Bill' Price SPC Margaret HigginsMaj Bill Smith, Ph.D. SGT Steve McFarlandLTC (Join to see) PO3Craig Phillips Lt Col Charlie Brown SSG Michael Noll PO1 H Gene Lawrence TSgt Joe C. Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Sgt (Join to see)SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG Donald H "Don" Bates Cpl (Join to see)PVT Mark Zehner
LTC Stephen F. SP5 Mark Kuzinski COL Mikel J. Burroughs SMSgt Lawrence McCarter Maj William W. 'Bill' Price SPC Margaret HigginsMaj Bill Smith, Ph.D. SGT Steve McFarlandLTC (Join to see) PO3Craig Phillips Lt Col Charlie Brown SSG Michael Noll PO1 H Gene Lawrence TSgt Joe C. Lt Col John (Jack) Christensen Sgt (Join to see)SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL SSG Donald H "Don" Bates Cpl (Join to see)PVT Mark Zehner
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That is a very cool picture.
We can't see it, but there'd have to be a heck of a black hole at the center of that galaxy to have it spin that fast. The central bulge would seem to indicate a dramatic event happened - as does the abundance of dust way out in the bands.
We can't see it, but there'd have to be a heck of a black hole at the center of that galaxy to have it spin that fast. The central bulge would seem to indicate a dramatic event happened - as does the abundance of dust way out in the bands.
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