Herschel

NGC1097, also known as Arp 77, is a nearby SBb galaxy with a Seyfert nucleus and a bright starburst ring. It has long been studied across a range of wavelengths due to its extraordinary properties. In the optical the complex nucleus, almost certainly harbouring a super massive black hole, central bar and spiral arms are well defined.

Elsewhere in this site image of the Cassiopeia A supernova remnant have been derived from ISO data. The image below is the first attempt at creating similar images using data from the Herschel mission.

Another hunt through the ESA archives is slowly placing more and more Herschel image data into the public domain. This latest image shows the centre of our galaxy as viewed by the SPIRE instrument.

After more searching through the Herschel data archive at ESA it has been possible to construct this image of M81.

Around a year ago one of the first Herschel images was released showing the object RCW 120 - an HII region RCW 120 - highlighting the newly detected young stars at the borders of the ionising bubble.