A galactic sunflower

Esahubble_potw1536a_1024

esahubble_potw1536a September 7th, 2015

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in a new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the centre of a sunflower. So the nickname for this cosmic object the Sunflower Galaxy is no coincidence. Discovered by Pierre Mechain in 1779, the galaxy later made it as the 63rd entry into fellow French astronomer Charles Messiers famous catalogue, published in 1781. The two astronomers spotted the Sunflower Galaxys glow in the small, northern constellation Canes Venatici (the Hunting Dogs). We now know this galaxy is about 27 million light-years away and belongs to the M51 Group a group of galaxies, named after its brightest member, Messier 51, another spiral-shaped galaxy dubbed the Whirlpool Galaxy. Galactic arms, sunflowers and whirlpools are only a few examples of natures apparent preference for spirals. For galaxies like Messier 63 the winding arms shine bright because of the presence of recently formed, bluewhite giant stars, readily seen in this Hubble image.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1536a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Messier 63
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_potw1536a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 13h 15m 50.1s
DEC = 42° 1’ 39.0”
Orientation
North is 11.6° CW
Field of View
1.8 x 1.7 arcminutes
Constellation
Canes Venatici

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (450W) 452.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (440W) 452.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (814W) 794.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (814W) 794.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Green
Red
Esahubble_potw1536a_1280
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ID
potw1536a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
Messier 63
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date
2015-09-07T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1536a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC2, WFPC2, WFPC2, WFPC2
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Green, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
450W, 440W, 814W, 814W
Central Wavelength
452, 452, 794, 794
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
198.958697398, 42.0275015468
Reference Dimension
1098.0, 1029.0
Reference Pixel
549.0, 514.5
Scale
-2.77667810742e-05, 2.77667810742e-05
Rotation
-11.559999999999992
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
potw1536a
Metadata Date
2015-06-30T16:05:33+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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