Glowing gas and dark dust in a side-on spiral

Esahubble_potw1238a_1024

esahubble_potw1238a September 17th, 2012

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced a sharp image of NGC 4634, a spiral galaxy seen exactly side-on. Its disc is slightly warped by ongoing interactions with a nearby galaxy, and it is crisscrossed by clearly defined dust lanes and bright nebulae. NGC 4634, which lies around 70 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Coma Berenices, is one of a pair of interacting galaxies. Its neighbour, NGC 4633, lies just outside the upper right corner of the frame, and is visible in wide-field views of the galaxy. While it may be out of sight, it is not out of mind: its subtle effects on NGC 4634 are easy to see to a well-trained eye. Gravitational interactions pull the neat spiral forms of galaxies out of shape as they get closer to each other, and the disruption to gas clouds triggers vigorous episodes of star formation. While this galaxys spiral pattern is not directly visible thanks to our side-on perspective, its disc is slightly warped, and there is clear evidence of star formation. Along the full length of the galaxy, and scattered around parts of its halo, are bright pink nebulae. Similar to the Orion Nebula in the Milky Way, these are clouds of gas that are gradually coalescing into stars. The powerful radiation from the stars excites the gas and makes it light up, much like a fluorescent sign. The large number of these star formation regions is a telltale sign of gravitational interaction. The dark filamentary structures that are scattered along the length of the galaxy are caused by cold interstellar dust blocking some of the starlight. Hubbles image is a combination of exposures in visible light produced by Hubbles Advanced Camera for Surveys and the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1238a/

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 4634
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_potw1238a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 42m 40.8s
DEC = 14° 17’ 51.6”
Orientation
North is 35.3° CW
Field of View
2.3 x 2.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Coma Berenices

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (B) -
Blue Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (V) -
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (R) -
Pseudocolor Hubble (ACS) Optical (R+H-alpha) -
Red Hubble (ACS) Optical (H-alpha) -
Esahubble_potw1238a_1280
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ID
potw1238a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 4634
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date
2012-09-17T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1238a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFPC2, WFPC2, ACS, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Blue, Blue, Green, Pseudocolor, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
B, V, R, R+H-alpha, H-alpha
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
190.669883916, 14.2976679697
Reference Dimension
2796.0, 2388.0
Reference Pixel
1398.0, 1194.0
Scale
-1.39582669025e-05, 1.39582669025e-05
Rotation
-35.300000000000026
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
potw1238a
Metadata Date
2012-07-27T09:52:04+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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