A frenzy of stars

Esahubble_potw1809a_1024

esahubble_potw1809a February 26th, 2018

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgements: Judy Schmidt

Discovered in 1900 by astronomer DeLisle Stewart and here imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, IC 4710 is an undeniably spectacular sight. The galaxy is a busy cloud of bright stars, with bright pockets marking bursts of new star formation scattered around its edges. IC 4710 is a dwarf irregular galaxy. As the name suggests, such galaxies are irregular and chaotic in appearance, lacking central bulges and spiral arms they are distinctly different from spirals or ellipticals. It is thought that irregular galaxies may once have been spirals or ellipticals, but became distorted over time through external gravitational forces during interactions or mergers with other galaxies. Dwarf irregulars in particular are important to our overall understanding of galactic evolution, as they are thought to be similar to the first galaxies that formed in the Universe. IC 4710 lies roughly 25 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Pavo (The Peacock). This constellation is located in the southern skies and also contains the third-brightest globular cluster in the sky, NGC 6752, the spiral galaxy NGC 6744, and six known planetary systems (including HD 181433 which is host to a super-Earth). The data used to create this image were gathered by Hubbles Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1809a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
IC 4710
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Size > Dwarf
Esahubble_potw1809a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 18h 28m 37.5s
DEC = -66° 58’ 54.4”
Orientation
North is 72.6° CW
Field of View
3.3 x 3.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Pavo

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Red Hubble (ACS) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Green
Red
Esahubble_potw1809a_1280
×
ID
potw1809a
Subject Category
C.5.2.2  
Subject Name
IC 4710
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgements: Judy Schmidt
Release Date
2018-02-26T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1809a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Green, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
V, V, I, I
Central Wavelength
606, 606, 814, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
277.156440069, -66.9817791128
Reference Dimension
3944.0, 3583.0
Reference Pixel
1972.0, 1791.5
Scale
-1.38895855146e-05, 1.38895855146e-05
Rotation
-72.560000000000059
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
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1809a
Metadata Date
2017-06-27T09:02:46+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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