NICMOS finds a golden ring at the heart of a galaxy (NICMOS image)

Esahubble_heic0207g_1024

esahubble_heic0207g June 5th, 2002

Credit: NASA, ESA, the NICMOS Group (STScI, ESA) and the NICMOS Science Team (Univ. of Arizona)

The revived Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer (NICMOS) aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble telescope has penetrated the dusty disc of the 'edge-on' galaxy NGC 4013 and looked right into the galactic core. To the surprise of astronomers, NICMOS found a brilliant band-like structure, that may be a ring of newly formed stars seen edge-on. NICMOS enables the Hubble telescope to see near-infrared wavelengths of light, so that it can penetrate the dust that obscures the inner hub of the galaxy. The ring-like structure seen by NICMOS encircles the core and is about 720 light-years wide, which is the typical size of most star-forming rings found in disc galaxies. The human eye cannot see infrared light so colours have been assigned to correspond to near-infrared wavelengths. The blue light represents shorter near-infrared wavelengths and the red light corresponds to longer wavelengths. This picture, taken with a filter sensitive to hydrogen, shows the glow of stars and gas. Astronomers used this information to calculate the rate of star formation in the ring-like structure. NGC 4013, which looks similar to our Milky Way Galaxy, resides in the constellation Ursa Major, 55 million light-years from Earth. This image, obtained on 12 May 2002, was taken through the Paschen-alpha filter.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0207g/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
IRAS 11559+4413 NGC 4013
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_heic0207g_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 11h 58m 31.2s
DEC = 43° 56’ 51.7”
Orientation
North is 5.7° CCW
Field of View
0.9 x 0.9 arcminutes
Constellation
Ursa Major

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (NICMOS) Infrared (Pa-alpha) 1.9 µm
Spectrum_base
Red
Esahubble_heic0207g_1280
×
ID
heic0207g
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
IRAS 11559+4413, NGC 4013
Credits
NASA, ESA, the NICMOS Group (STScI, ESA) and the NICMOS Science Team (Univ. of Arizona)
Release Date
2002-06-05T15:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic0207g/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
NICMOS
Color Assignment
Red
Band
Infrared
Bandpass
Pa-alpha
Central Wavelength
1870
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
179.629878415, 43.9476814898
Reference Dimension
1008.0, 1008.0
Reference Pixel
504.0, 504.0
Scale
-1.41088780267e-05, 1.41088780267e-05
Rotation
5.720000000000006
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
heic0207g
Metadata Date
2003-12-09T17:08:55+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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