A bizarre cosmic rarity: NGC 660

Esahubble_potw1348a_1024

esahubble_potw1348a December 2nd, 2013

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

This new Hubble image shows a peculiar galaxy known as NGC 660, located around 45 million light-years away from us. NGC 660 is classified as a "polar ring galaxy", meaning that it has a belt of gas and stars around its centre that it ripped from a near neighbour during a clash about one billion years ago. The first polar ring galaxy was observed in 1978 and only around a dozen more have been discovered since then, making them something of a cosmic rarity. Unfortunately, NGC 660s polar ring cannot be seen in this image, but has plenty of other features that make it of interest to astronomers its central bulge is strangely off-kilter and, perhaps more intriguingly, it is thought to harbour exceptionally large amounts of dark matter. In addition, in late 2012 astronomers observed a massive outburst emanating from NGC 660 that was around ten times as bright as a supernova explosion. This burst was thought to be caused by a massive jet shooting out of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the galaxy. A version of this image was entered into theHubble's Hidden Treasuresimage processing competition by contestant Brian Campbell.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1348a/

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 660
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Ring
Esahubble_potw1348a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 1h 43m 2.2s
DEC = 13° 38’ 45.6”
Orientation
North is 17.5° CCW
Field of View
1.6 x 1.4 arcminutes
Constellation
Pisces

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Cyan Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (B) 450.0 nm
Orange Hubble (ACS) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Red Hubble (ACS) Optical (R) 658.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Cyan
Orange
Red
Esahubble_potw1348a_1280
×
ID
potw1348a
Subject Category
C.5.1.5  
Subject Name
NGC 660
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date
2013-12-02T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1348a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
from NED
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC2, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Cyan, Orange, Red
Band
Optical, Infrared, Optical
Bandpass
B, I, R
Central Wavelength
450, 814, 658
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
25.7591167068, 13.645991593
Reference Dimension
1971.0, 1640.0
Reference Pixel
985.0, 820.0
Scale
-1.38148448031e-05, 1.38148448031e-05
Rotation
17.479999999999947
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
potw1348a
Metadata Date
2013-08-09T13:12:04+02:00
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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