Spiral galaxy NGC 4911 in the Coma cluster

Esahubble_opo1024a_1024

esahubble_opo1024a August 10th, 2010

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: K. Cook (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA)

A long-exposure Hubble Space Telescope image shows a majestic face-on spiral galaxy located deep within the Coma Cluster of galaxies, which lies 320 million light-years away in the northern constellation Coma Berenices. The galaxy, known as NGC 4911, contains rich lanes of dust and gas near its centre. These are silhouetted against glowing newborn star clusters and iridescent pink clouds of hydrogen, the existence of which indicates ongoing star formation. Hubble has also captured the outer spiral arms of NGC 4911, along with thousands of other galaxies of varying sizes. The high resolution of Hubble's cameras, paired with considerably long exposures, made it possible to observe these faint details. NGC 4911 and other spirals near the centre of the cluster are being transformed by the gravitational tug of their neighbours. In the case of NGC 4911, wispy arcs of the galaxy's outer spiral arms are being pulled and distorted by forces from a companion galaxy (NGC 4911A), to the upper right. The resultant stripped material will eventually be dispersed throughout the core of the Coma Cluster, where it will fuel the intergalactic populations of stars and star clusters. The Coma Cluster is home to almost 1,000 galaxies, making it one of the densest collections of galaxies in the nearby universe. It continues to transform galaxies at the present epoch, due to the interactions of close-proximity galaxy systems within the dense cluster. Vigorous star formation is triggered in such collisions. Galaxies in this cluster are so densely packed that they undergo frequent interactions and collisions. When galaxies of nearly equal masses merge, they form elliptical galaxies. Merging is more likely to occur in the center of the cluster where the density of galaxies is higher, giving rise to more elliptical galaxies. This natural-colour Hubble image, which combines data obtained in 2006, 2007, and 2009 from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys, required 28 hours of exposure time.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1024a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 4911
Subject - Solar System
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_opo1024a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 13h 0m 58.2s
DEC = 27° 47’ 9.9”
Orientation
North is 63.5° CCW
Field of View
3.1 x 2.7 arcminutes
Constellation
Coma Berenices

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (None) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Red Hubble (None) Optical (H-alpha) 673.0 nm
Green Hubble (None) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Blue Hubble (None) Optical (B) 450.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Red
Green
Blue
Esahubble_opo1024a_1280
×
ID
opo1024a
Subject Category
A.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 4911
Credits
NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA). Acknowledgment: K. Cook (Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, USA)
Release Date
2010-08-10T15:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo1024a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Distance in light years from NED
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
None, None, None, None
Color Assignment
Red, Red, Green, Blue
Band
Infrared, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
I, H-alpha, V, B
Central Wavelength
814, 673, 606, 450
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
195.2423833, 27.7860943
Reference Dimension
3765.0, 3261.0
Reference Pixel
1883.5, 1631.5
Scale
-1.39051e-05, 1.3905061e-05
Rotation
63.47
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
opo1024a
Metadata Date
2010-07-22T12:10:38-04:00
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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