Line of blue dots curves around galaxy?
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by
Mjtbarrett
In the original image that I was shown to classify there's a set of bright blue objects that looked like cosmic ray hits. The line curves around the galaxy in the top left hand corner of the image, then changes direction and extends in a line down the left side of the image, from top to bottom. I originally wondered if it was a gravitational effect showing the path of a cosmic ray being bent. Since cosmic rays show as hits on the CCD module this seems a ludicrous notion, but is there an element of the image processing pipeline that could cause this effect? For this feature to be genuine and genuinely affected by the mass of the galaxy then recorded by the CCD module is hardly credible.
In general terms, however, would it be possible for a beam of elementary particles to emit light as it ionises in contact with e.g. dust and that ionisation be recordable as light by Hubble during the blue filter phase. Over time, as the exposure continues, a dotted blue line would then appear with each flash?? The most likely explanation for a real occurrence would be that something has affected the CCD module and the shape (appearing to curve around the galaxy) is just a random chance alignment. Alternatively something in the image processing?
I know that this is probably wrong on so many levels, but I am curious as to the cause of the dots that I saw in the classification image.
Thanks.Posted