Near and Distant Galaxies around M106 (Bruce Van Deventer)

Near and Distant Galaxies around M106

In just 26 minutes of exposure time, you can image an active galaxy (a quasar) over 16 billion light-years away. Starting at the "bottom" of the image we have M106 which itself is an active galactic nuclei (AGN) galaxy, a Seyfert galaxy, about 24 million light-years away. The next brightest one in this field is NGC 4248 which is about the same distance, but smaller. Then we have 2MASS XJ12175335+4718016 (the name is the position if you look carefully) at 800 million light-years. Next we have quasar QSO J1218+472, 5 billion light years distant and a visual magnitude of 19.9, and a redshift Z of 0.398. Finally we have the Seyfert galaxy 3XMM J121804.5+470849 at Z=1.78 and a visual magnitude of 21.0 (but a Gaia G magnitude of 20.1). 3XMM is the designation from a catalog of X-ray variable active galactic nuclei, the same object was also covered in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasar catalog.

Astronomers use the redshift measurement Z to characterize the distance to objects since Z is a pure measurement of the spectral characteristics of the object, while the distance and look back time are functions of your particular model of the universe, specifically the Hubble constant and the density parameter (ratio) Omega.

The image is shown with the white background (negative) so that it is easier to see faint objects. It's only about 30 minutes of integration using a Meade 10" f/10 SCT and no reducer. No guiding was used and only one flat and five darks.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

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