Astro-pointillism

Esahubble_potw1651a_1024

esahubble_potw1651a December 19th, 2016

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

On a clear evening in April of 1789, the renowned astronomer William Herschel continued his unrelenting survey of the night sky, hunting for new cosmic objects and found cause to celebrate! Lengthening his impressive list of cosmic discoveries yet again, the astronomer spotted this bright spiral galaxy, named NGC 4707, lurking in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dog). NGC 4707 lies roughly 22 million light-years from Earth. Over two centuries later, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is able to view the same galaxy in far greater detail than Herschel could, allowing us to appreciate the intricacies and characteristics of NGC 4707 as never before. This striking image comprises observations from Hubbles Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), one of a handful of high-resolution instruments currently aboard the space telescope. Herschel himself reportedly described NGC 4707 as a small, stellar galaxy; while it is classified as a spiral (type Sm), its overall shape, centre, and spiral arms are very loose and undefined, and its central bulge is either very small or non-existent. It instead appears as a rough sprinkling of stars and bright flashes of blue on a dark canvas, as if a pointillist painter had dotted the cosmos with small pinpricks of bright paint. The blue smudges seen across the frame highlight regions of recent or ongoing star formation, with newborn stars glowing in bright, intense shades of cyan and turquoise.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1651a/

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 4707
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_potw1651a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 48m 22.0s
DEC = 51° 9’ 43.0”
Orientation
North is 69.2° CW
Field of View
3.0 x 2.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Canes Venatici

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Cyan Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Orange Hubble (ACS) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Cyan
Orange
Esahubble_potw1651a_1280
×
ID
potw1651a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 4707
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date
2016-12-19T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1651a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
NED
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Cyan, Orange
Band
Optical, Optical
Bandpass
V, I
Central Wavelength
606, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
192.091495026, 51.1619566985
Reference Dimension
3550.0, 2406.0
Reference Pixel
1775.0, 1203.0
Scale
-1.38905861534e-05, 1.38905861534e-05
Rotation
-69.18
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
potw1651a
Metadata Date
2016-05-03T14:56:44+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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