Members Can Post Anonymously On This Site
-
Similar Topics
-
By NASA
ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image treats viewers to a wonderfully detailed snapshot of the spiral galaxy NGC 3430 that lies 100 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo Minor. Several other galaxies, located relatively nearby to this one, are just beyond the frame of this image; one is close enough that gravitational interaction is driving some star formation in NGC 3430 — visible as bright-blue patches near to but outside of the galaxy’s main spiral structure. This fine example of a galactic spiral holds a bright core from which a pinwheel array of arms appears to radiate outward. Dark dust lanes and bright star-forming regions help define these spiral arms.
NGC 3430’s distinct shape may be one reason why astronomer Edwin Hubble used to it to help define his classification of galaxies. Namesake of the Hubble Space Telescope, Edwin Hubble authored a paper in 1926 that outlined the classification of some four hundred galaxies by their appearance — as either spiral, barred spiral, lenticular, elliptical, or irregular. This straightforward typology proved extremely influential, and the detailed schemes astronomers use today are still based on Edwin Hubble’s work. NGC 3430 itself is a spiral lacking a central bar with open, clearly defined arms — classified today as an SAc galaxy.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick
View the full article
-
By NASA
2 min read
Hubble Images a Classic Spiral
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the majestic spiral galaxy NGC 3430. ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image treats viewers to a wonderfully detailed snapshot of the spiral galaxy NGC 3430 that lies 100 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo Minor. Several other galaxies, located relatively nearby to this one, are just beyond the frame of this image; one is close enough that gravitational interaction is driving some star formation in NGC 3430 — visible as bright-blue patches near to but outside of the galaxy’s main spiral structure. This fine example of a galactic spiral holds a bright core from which a pinwheel array of arms appears to radiate outward. Dark dust lanes and bright star-forming regions help define these spiral arms.
NGC 3430’s distinct shape may be one reason why astronomer Edwin Hubble used to it to help define his classification of galaxies. Namesake of the Hubble Space Telescope, Edwin Hubble authored a paper in 1926 that outlined the classification of some four hundred galaxies by their appearance — as either spiral, barred spiral, lenticular, elliptical, or irregular. This straightforward typology proved extremely influential, and the detailed schemes astronomers use today are still based on Edwin Hubble’s work. NGC 3430 itself is a spiral lacking a central bar with open, clearly defined arms — classified today as an SAc galaxy.
Astronomer Edwin Hubble pioneered the study of galaxies based simply on their appearance. This “Field Guide” outlines Hubble’s classification scheme using images from his namesake telescope. Credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center; Lead Producer: Miranda Chabot; Lead Writer: Andrea Gianopoulos
Download this image
Explore More
Hubble’s Galaxies
Astronomer Edwin Hubble
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Share
Details
Last Updated Jul 25, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Missions Spiral Galaxies The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Hubble’s Galaxies
Hubble Design
Hubble Science Highlights
View the full article
-
By NASA
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 is interacting with a smaller galaxy to the upper left. The smaller galaxy has likely stripped gas from NGC 6872 to feed the supermassive black hole in its center.X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt, L. Frattare, and J. Major To commemorate the 25th anniversary of NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory launch, the Chandra team released this never-seen-before image of NGC 6872, a spiral galaxy in the Pavo (Peacock) constellation, on July 22, 2024. This image and 24 others, which all include data from Chandra, demonstrate how X-ray astronomy explores all corners of the universe.
NGC 6872 is 522,000 light-years across, making it more than five times the size of the Milky Way galaxy; in 2013, astronomers from the United States, Chile, and Brazil found it to be the largest-known spiral galaxy, based on archival data from NASA’s Galaxy Evolution Explorer. This record was surpassed by NGC 262, a galaxy that measures 1.3 million light-years in diameter.
See more photos released for this celebration.
Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/SAO; Optical: NASA/ESA/STScI; Image Processing: NASA/CXC/SAO/J. Schmidt, L. Frattare, and J. Major
View the full article
-
By NASA
Image data: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SwRI/MSSS
Image processing by Gary Eason © CC BY During its 61st close flyby of Jupiter on May 12, 2024, NASA’s Juno spacecraft captured this color-enhanced view of the giant planet’s northern hemisphere. It provides a detailed view of chaotic clouds and cyclonic storms in an area known to scientists as a folded filamentary region. In these regions, the zonal jets that create the familiar banded patterns in Jupiter’s clouds break down, leading to turbulent patterns and cloud structures that rapidly evolve over the course of only a few days.
Citizen scientist Gary Eason made this image using raw data from the JunoCam instrument, applying digital processing techniques to enhance color and clarity.
At the time the raw image was taken, the Juno spacecraft was about 18,000 miles (29,000 kilometers) above Jupiter’s cloud tops, at a latitude of about 68 degrees north of the equator.
JunoCam’s raw images are available for the public to peruse and process into image products at https://missionjuno.swri.edu/junocam/processing. More information about NASA citizen science can be found at https://science.nasa.gov/citizenscience and https://www.nasa.gov/solve/opportunities/citizenscience.
More information about Juno is at https://www.nasa.gov/juno and https://missionjuno.swri.edu. For more about this finding and other science results, see https://www.missionjuno.swri.edu/science-findings.
View the full article
-
By NASA
3 min read
Hubble Studies a Potential Galactic Merger
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image captures the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238. ESA/Hubble & NASA, F. Annibali This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 5238, located 14.5 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Canes Venatici. Its unexciting, blob-like appearance seems to resemble an oversized star cluster more than a classic image of a galaxy. Its lackluster appearance belies its complicated structure, which is the subject of a great deal of research. As the image reveals, Hubble is able to pick out the galaxy’s countless stars, as well as its associated globular clusters — glowing, bright spots both inside and around the galaxy swarmed by even more stars.
Astronomers theorize that NGC 5238 may have had a close encounter with another galaxy as recently as a billion years ago. NGC 5238’s distorted shape provides evidence for this interaction. As the two galaxies interacted, their gravity caused distortions in the distribution of stars in each galaxy. There’s no nearby galaxy which could have caused this disturbance, so astronomers think NGC 5238 devoured a smaller satellite galaxy. Astronomers look for traces of the consumed galaxy by closely examining the population of stars in NGC 5238, a task made for Hubble’s excellent resolution. One tell-tale sign of the smaller galaxy would be groups of stars with different properties from most of NGC 5238’s other stars, indicating they were originally formed in a separate galaxy. Another sign would be a burst of star formation that occurred abruptly at around the same time the two galaxies merged. The Hubble data used to create this image will help astronomers determine NGC 5238’s history.
Despite their small size and unremarkable appearance, it’s not unusual for dwarf galaxies like NGC 5238 to drive our understanding of galaxy formation and evolution. One main theory of galaxy evolution is that galaxies formed ‘bottom-up’ in a hierarchical fashion: star clusters and small galaxies were the first to form out of gas and dark matter. Over time, gravity gradually assembled these smaller objects into galaxy clusters and superclusters, which explains the shape of the largest structures we see in the universe today. A dwarf irregular galaxy like NGC 5238 merging with a smaller companion is just the type of event that might have started the process of galaxy assembly in the early universe. Hubble’s observations of tiny NGC 5238 may help test some of our most fundamental ideas of how the universe evolves!
Download this image
Explore More
Galaxy Details and Mergers
Tracing the Growth of Galaxies
Hubble’s Galaxies
Hubble’s Star Clusters
Facebook logo @NASAHubble @NASAHubble Instagram logo @NASAHubble Media Contact:
Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov
Share
Details
Last Updated Jul 18, 2024 Editor Andrea Gianopoulos Location NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Related Terms
Astrophysics Astrophysics Division Galaxies Goddard Space Flight Center Hubble Space Telescope Irregular Galaxies Missions The Universe Keep Exploring Discover More Topics From Hubble
Hubble Space Telescope
Since its 1990 launch, the Hubble Space Telescope has changed our fundamental understanding of the universe.
Hubble E-books
Hubble Science
Hubble Online Activities
View the full article
-
-
Check out these Videos
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.