esahubble_heic1709a April 20th, 2017
Credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Mutchler (STScI)
This image displays the galaxies NGC 4302 seen edge-on and NGC 4298, both located 55 million light-years away. They were observed by Hubble to celebrate its 27th year in orbit. The galaxy NGC 4298 is seen almost face-on, allowing us to see its spiral arms and the blue patches of ongoing star formation and young stars. In the edge-on disc of NGC 4302 huge swathes of dust are responsible for the mottled brown patterns, but a burst of blue to the left side of the galaxy indicates a region of extremely vigorous star formation. The image is a mosaic of four separate captures from Hubble, taken between 2 and 22 January 2017, that have been stitched together to give this amazing field of view. Two different types of light emitted by the galaxies visible and near-infrared have been combined to give a rich and colourful image. This light was captured by Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3, one of the telescopes most advanced imaging instruments.
Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA
Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/heic1709a/
Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
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