A cosmic optical illusion

Esahubble_potw1333a_1024

esahubble_potw1333a August 19th, 2013

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASAAcknowledgement: Luca Limatola

At first glance, this Hubble picture appears to capture two space colossi entangled in a fierce celestial battle, with two galaxies entwined and merging to form one. But this shows just how easy it is to misinterpret the jumble of sparkling stars and get the wrong impression as its all down to a trick of perspective. By chance, these galaxies appear to be aligned from our point of view. In the foreground, the irregular dwarf galaxy PGC 16389 seen here as a cloud of stars covers its neighbouring galaxy APMBGC 252+125-117, which appears edge-on as a streak. This wide-field image also captures many other more distant galaxies, including a quite prominent face-on spiral towards the right of the picture. A version of this image was entered into the Hubbles Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Luca Limatola.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1333a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
APMBGC 252+125-117 ESO 252-1 PGC 16389
Subject - Distant Universe
Galaxy
Esahubble_potw1333a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 4h 56m 58.2s
DEC = -42° 47’ 48.8”
Orientation
North is 157.9° CW
Field of View
3.3 x 1.9 arcminutes
Constellation
Caelum

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Cyan Hubble (ACS) Optical (G) 606.0 nm
Yellow Hubble (ACS) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Cyan
Yellow
Esahubble_potw1333a_1280
×
ID
potw1333a
Subject Category
D.5  
Subject Name
APMBGC 252+125-117, ESO 252-1, PGC 16389
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASAAcknowledgement: Luca Limatola
Release Date
2013-08-19T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1333a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Cyan, Yellow
Band
Optical, Infrared
Bandpass
G, I
Central Wavelength
606, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
74.2426097035, -42.7968756898
Reference Dimension
3954.0, 2305.0
Reference Pixel
1977.0, 1152.0
Scale
-1.39234795009e-05, 1.39234795009e-05
Rotation
-157.89999999999995
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
potw1333a
Metadata Date
2013-05-17T16:39:03+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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