A fossil in the making

Esahubble_potw1426a_1024

esahubble_potw1426a June 30th, 2014

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Luca Limatola

Discovered by astronomer William Herschel in the late 1700s, NGC 201 is a barred spiral galaxy similar to our own galaxy, the Milky Way. It lies 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster), and is invisible to the naked eye. This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 201 shows the galaxy in striking detail, capturing the bright centre and the barred spiral arms arms that do not start directly from the galactic centre, but instead seem to be offset and stem from a "bar" of stars cutting through the middle of the galaxy. Along with three of its closest galactic neighbours (outside the frame), NGC 201 belongs to a group known as the HCG 7 compact galactic group. Hickson Compact Groups (HCG) are relatively small and isolated systems containing a handful of bright, compact galaxies that lie close to one another. As the galaxies within these groups move closer together they interact strongly, dragging galactic material out into space and distorting the structure of the other group members. Eventually, all the galaxies within one HCG will merge together. Simulations have shown that within a billion years, the galaxies within one HCG have merged to form a giant fossil galaxy. It is possible that this is the final fate of all galactic groups. A version of this image was submitted to the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Luca Limatola.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1426a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
HCG 7 NGC 201
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Galaxy > Type > Barred
Galaxy > Grouping > Multiple
Esahubble_potw1426a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 0h 39m 31.7s
DEC = 0° 51’ 47.5”
Orientation
North is 12.6° CW
Field of View
3.0 x 2.8 arcminutes
Constellation
Cetus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (ACS) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) 435.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Esahubble_potw1426a_1280
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ID
potw1426a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1   C.5.1.2   C.5.5.2  
Subject Name
HCG 7, NGC 201
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Luca Limatola
Release Date
2014-06-30T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1426a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Infrared, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
I, V, B
Central Wavelength
814, 606, 435
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
9.88194661032, 0.863206065677
Reference Dimension
3631.0, 3403.0
Reference Pixel
1815.0, 1701.0
Scale
-1.38820849063e-05, 1.38820849063e-05
Rotation
-12.639999999999992
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
potw1426a
Metadata Date
2014-02-04T15:22:57+01:00
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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