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Esahubble_potw1603a_1024

esahubble_potw1603a January 18th, 2016

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla)

Most galaxies possess a majestic spiral or elliptical structure. About a quarter of galaxies, though, defy such conventional, rounded aesthetics, instead sporting a messy, indefinable shape. Known as irregular galaxies, this group includes NGC 5408, the galaxy that has been snapped here by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. English polymath John Herschel recorded the existence of NGC 5408 in June 1834. Astronomers had long mistaken NGC 5408 for a planetary nebula, an expelled cloud of material from an aging star. Instead, bucking labels, NGC 5408 turned out to be an entire galaxy, located about 16 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur). In yet another sign of NGC 5408 breaking convention, the galaxy is associated with an object known as an ultraluminous X-ray source, dubbed NGC 5408 X-1, one of the best studied of its class. These rare objects beam out prodigious amounts of energetic X-rays. Astrophysicists believe these sources to be strong candidates for intermediate-mass black holes. This hypothetical type of black hole has significantly less mass than the supermassive black holes found in galactic centres, which can have billions of times the mass of the Sun, but have a good deal more mass than the black holes formed when giant stars collapse. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Judy Schmidt.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1603a/

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 5408
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Irregular
Esahubble_potw1603a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 14h 3m 21.3s
DEC = -41° 22’ 41.8”
Orientation
North is 28.9° CCW
Field of View
2.1 x 1.5 arcminutes
Constellation
Centaurus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Cyan Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (Y) 1.1 µm
Orange Hubble (WFPC2) Optical (H-alpha) 656.0 nm
Orange Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (H) 1.6 µm
Spectrum_base
Cyan
Orange
Orange
Esahubble_potw1603a_1280
×
ID
potw1603a
Subject Category
C.5.1.6  
Subject Name
NGC 5408
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt (Geckzilla)
Release Date
2016-01-18T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1603a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
NED (just under 15,900,000)
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFPC2, WFC3
Color Assignment
Cyan, Orange, Orange
Band
Infrared, Optical, Infrared
Bandpass
Y, H-alpha, H
Central Wavelength
1050, 656, 1600
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
210.838923516, -41.3782652192
Reference Dimension
1257.0, 902.0
Reference Pixel
628.0, 451.0
Scale
-2.77183610386e-05, 2.77183610386e-05
Rotation
28.919999999999995
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
potw1603a
Metadata Date
2015-12-17T18:28:52+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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