The moment the lights went out

Esahubble_potw1304a_1024

esahubble_potw1304a January 28th, 2013

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: A. Zabludoff, N. Rose

The further away you look, the further back in time you see. Astronomers use this fact to study the evolution of the Universe by looking at nearby and more distant galaxies and comparing their features. Hubble is particularly well suited for this type of work because of its extremely high resolution and its position above the atmosphere. This has allowed it to detect many of the most distant galaxies known, as well as making detailed images of faraway objects. Comparing galaxies in the distant past with those around us today, astronomers have noticed that the nearby galaxies are far quieter and calmer than their distant brethren, seen earlier in their lives. Nearby galaxies (although not the Milky Way) are often large, elliptical galaxies with little or no ongoing star formation, and their stars tend to be elderly and red in colour. These galaxies, in astronomers' language, are "red and dead". This is not so for galaxies further away, which typically show more vigorous star birth. The reason for this appears to be that as the Universe has aged, galaxies have often collided and merged together, and these events disrupt gas clouds within them. A merger will usually be a trigger for such intense star formation that the supply of gas is used up, and no more star formation occurs afterwards. The merged elliptical galaxy then creeps into old age, getting redder as its stars get older. This is expected to happen to the Milky Way when it merges with the nearby Andromeda Galaxy, some four billion years from now. The galaxy in this image, catalogued as 2MASX J09442693+0429569, marks a transitional phase in this process as young, star-forming galaxies settle to become massive, red and dead galaxies. The galaxy has tail-like features extending from it, typical of a galaxy that has recently undergone a merger. Studying the properties of the light from this galaxy, astronomers see no sign of ongoing star formation; in other words, the merger triggered an event which has used up all the gas. However, the observations suggest that star formation was strong until the very recent past, and has ceased only within the last billion years. This image therefore shows a snapshot of the moment star formation stopped forever in a galaxy. A version of this image was entered into the Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Nick Rose.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1304a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
2MASX J09442693+0429569
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy > Type > Elliptical
Esahubble_potw1304a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 9h 44m 27.0s
DEC = 4° 29’ 58.9”
Orientation
North is 28.0° CCW
Field of View
1.6 x 1.6 arcminutes
Constellation
Sextans

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Orange Hubble (WFC3) Optical (R) 625.0 nm
Cyan Hubble (WFC3) Optical (B) 438.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Orange
Cyan
Esahubble_potw1304a_1280
×
ID
potw1304a
Subject Category
D.5.1.4  
Subject Name
2MASX J09442693+0429569
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, Acknowledgement: A. Zabludoff, N. Rose
Release Date
2013-01-28T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1304a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Orange, Cyan
Band
Optical, Optical
Bandpass
R, B
Central Wavelength
625, 438
Start Time
Integration Time
2255, 5298
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
146.11233054, 4.49970196135
Reference Dimension
2485.0, 2393.0
Reference Pixel
1242.0, 1196.0
Scale
-1.09793118589e-05, 1.09793118589e-05
Rotation
28.020000000000014
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
potw1304a
Metadata Date
2012-12-04T09:56:49+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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