Spark
Loading...

M82, SN 2014J, and ULX Contrast

The Barrett M82 (standardized by the US military as the M107) is a recoil-operated, semi-automatic anti-materiel rifle developed by Barrett Firearms Manufacturing and produced in the United States. Also called the Light Fifty (due to its chambering of the 50 BMG 12 7×99mm NATO cartridge), the weapon is classified in three variants: the original M82A1 (and M82A3) models, the bullpup M82A2 model, and the Barrett M107A1, with an attached QDL adapter muzzle brake (designed to accept a suppressor, and made lighter with the use of aluminum and titanium). The M82A2 is no longer manufactured, though the XM500 can be seen as its successor.

Figures (10)

University of London Observatory, where SN 2014J was discovered.
Light echo around SN 2014J in M82.[9]
Light curves for SN 2014J in four photometric bands, plotted from data published by Tsvetkov et al. (2018)[17]
A Chandra image of NGC 4485 and NGC 4490: two potential ULXs
Side-by-side Hubble and Very Large Telescope MUSE images of the environment around NGC 1313 X-1. The MUSE RGB image of the nebula carved by the ULX sitting at its center (indicated by a star) is seen in three narrow filters showing oxygen, sulfur and hydrogen emission[9].
The Antennae Galaxies are an example of a starburst galaxy occurring from the collision of NGC 4038/NGC 4039. Credit: NASA/ESA.
Light and dust in a nearby starburst galaxy known as 2MASS J082354.96+280621.6[3]
Artist's impression of a galaxy undergoing a starburst[10]
SBS 1415+437 is a WR galaxy located about 45 million light-years from Earth.[11]
Messier 82 is the prototype nearby starburst galaxy about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.

Key Points

  • M82-X1 is associated with a star cluster, exhibits quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs), has a modulation of 62 days in its X-ray amplitude.
  • SN 2014J was a Type-Ia supernova in Messier 82 (the 'Cigar Galaxy', M82) discovered in mid-January 2014.
  • Tens of percents of ULXs are in fact background quasars; the probability for a ULX to be a background source is larger in elliptical galaxies than in spiral galaxies.
  • A starburst galaxy is one undergoing an exceptionally high rate of star formation, as compared to the long-term average rate of star formation in the galaxy, or the star formation rate observed in most other galaxies.
  • In astronomy and astrophysics, an ultraluminous X-ray source (ULX) is less luminous than an active galactic nucleus but more consistently luminous than any known stellar process (over 1039 erg/s, or 1032 watts), assuming that it radiates isotropically (the same in all directions).

Terms

Tap a term for a plain-language explanation.

Sources & licensing(4)