Think about a galaxy and what involves thoughts possible seems like NGC 2336, a shimmering swirl of stars.
And simply days earlier than a software program glitch briefly shut down the Hubble Space Telescope, the long-lasting spacecraft despatched house a shocking picture of the massive, stunning, and brilliantly blue galaxy. NASA uploaded the picture of NGC 2336, a galaxy situated about 100 million light-years from Earth within the constellation of Camelopardalis (aka the Giraffe), on Friday, March 5, two days earlier than the telescope unexpectedly shut down. (The telescope has since resumed operations.)
In a statement about the new image, NASA calls NGC 2336 “the quintessential galaxy.” NGC 2336 is a barred spiral galaxy, which means it has a star-dense heart within the form of a bar, with arms that spiral out from the ends of the bar. The galaxy can be very giant, 200,000 light-years throughout in keeping with the NASA assertion.
Associated: The best Hubble Space Telescope images of all time!
That is removed from the most important galaxy to be found, the respect of which works to IC 1101, which is 50 instances the dimensions of our Milky Approach at 5.5 million light-years throughout. Nonetheless, it is on the big finish of most spiral galaxies, which can measure between about 16,000 light-years and 300,000 light-years across.
The intense blue stars twinkling all through NGC 2336’s spiral arms make the galaxy particularly stunning. These are younger stars, which give off vibrant, blue mild. At NGC 2336’s heart is a darker, redder space comprised principally of older stars.
German astronomer Wilhelm Tempel found this “quintessential galaxy” in 1876 utilizing a a lot smaller telescope than Hubble, with a mirror about one-tenth the dimensions of Hubble’s.
Observe Kasandra Brabaw on Twitter @KassieBrabaw. Observe us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Fb.
Source link
