The centre of NGC 247

Esahubble_potw1640a_1024

esahubble_potw1640a October 3rd, 2016

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

This Hubble image shows the central region of a spiral galaxy known as NGC 247. NGC 247 is a relatively small spiral galaxy in the southern constellation of Cetus (The Whale). Lying at a distance of around 11 million light-years from us, it forms part of the Sculptor Group, a loose collection of galaxies that also contains the more famous NGC 253 (otherwise known as the Sculptor Galaxy). NGC 247s nucleus is visible here as a bright, whitish patch, surrounded by a mixture of stars, gas and dust. The dust forms dark patches and filaments that are silhouetted against the background of stars, while the gas has formed into bright knots known as H II regions, mostly scattered throughout the galaxys arms and outer areas. This galaxy displays one particularly unusual and mysterious feature it is not visible in this image, but can be seen clearly in wider views of the galaxy, such as this picture from ESOs MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope. The northern part of NGC 247s disc hosts an apparent void, a gap in the usual swarm of stars and H II regions that spans almost a third of the galaxys total length. There are stars within this void, but they are quite different from those around it. They are significantly older, and as a result much fainter and redder. This indicates that the star formation taking place across most of the galaxys disc has somehow been arrested in the void region, and has not taken place for around one billion years. Although astronomers are still unsure how the void formed, recent studies suggest it might have been caused by gravitational interactions with part of another galaxy.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1640a/

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 247
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_potw1640a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 0h 47m 10.5s
DEC = -20° 46’ 6.7”
Orientation
North is 80.6° CW
Field of View
3.4 x 3.2 arcminutes
Constellation
Cetus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) 475.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Red Hubble (ACS) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Red
Esahubble_potw1640a_1280
×
ID
potw1640a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 247
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date
2016-10-03T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1640a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Infrared
Bandpass
B, V, I
Central Wavelength
475, 606, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
11.7935913238, -20.7685181331
Reference Dimension
4092.0, 3790.0
Reference Pixel
2046.0, 1895.0
Scale
-1.38933689039e-05, 1.38933689039e-05
Rotation
-80.5599999999999
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
potw1640a
Metadata Date
2016-05-03T11:31:23+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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