Radio galaxy 53W002

Esahubble_opo9221a_1024

esahubble_opo9221a July 1st, 1992

Credit: Rogier Windorst (Arizona State University) William Keel (University of Alabama) and NASA/ESA

This is a small portion of an image taken with NASAESA Hubble Space Telescope href="http://www.spacetelescope.org/about/index.html">HST) Wide Field Planetary camera (WFPC) in WF mode a near-infrared (F785LP) filter, showing the distant radio galaxy 53W002 at lower left. The region shown is a subimage 100 WFC pixels (10.16 arcseconds) on a side. The bright object is a foreground galaxy approximately four times closer. The inset the at upper left shows how a nearby galaxy (M87) believed to be similar to 53W002 would appear at the same distance. The distant galaxy is much brighter, showing the time evolution of the stellar population in these galaxies. It is also almost as compact as M87, suggesting that it has nearly completed its collapse under self-gravity while forming stars. The outer regions of 53W002, faintly visible in this reproduction, have a structure remarkably similar to that of nearby, more dynamically resolved galaxies as well. Together with ground-based spectra and theoretical models, this image suggests that we are seeing a galaxy near the end of its formation phase, and that the galaxies initial collapse coincided with its initial round of star formation. This has long been expected theoretically but has been difficult to show. Less expected is timing; 53W002 started the process much later than many galaxies seen at higher redshift, so that the period of galaxy formation must have been drawn out over several billion years.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9221a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
53W 002 Hercules 5
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Grayscale Hubble (WFPC1) Infrared (I) 785.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Grayscale
Esahubble_opo9221a_1280
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ID
opo9221a
Subject Category
D.5  
Subject Name
53W 002, Hercules 5
Credits
Rogier Windorst (Arizona State University) William Keel (University of Alabama) and NASA/ESA
Release Date
1992-07-01T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/opo9221a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC1
Color Assignment
Grayscale
Band
Infrared
Bandpass
I
Central Wavelength
785
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
Equinox
Reference Value
Reference Dimension
2371.0, 2365.0
Reference Pixel
Scale
Rotation
Coordinate System Projection:
Quality
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
opo9221a
Metadata Date
2003-12-09T17:37:21+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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