Seeing things sideways

Esahubble_potw1711a_1024

esahubble_potw1711a March 13th, 2017

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

This image from Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) shows NGC 1448, a spiral galaxy located about 50 million light-years from Earth in the little-known constellation of Horologium (The Pendulum Clock). We tend to think of spiral galaxies as massive and roughly circular celestial bodies, so this glittering oval does not immediately appear to fit the visual bill. Whats going on? Imagine a spiral galaxy as a circular frisbee spinning gently in space. When we see it face on, our observations reveal a spectacular amount of detail and structure a great example from Hubble is the telescopes view of Messier 51, otherwise known as the Whirlpool Galaxy. However, the NGC 1448 frisbee is very nearly edge-on with respect to Earth, giving it an appearance that is more oval than circular. The spiral arms, which curve out from NGC 1448s dense core, can just about be seen. Although spiral galaxies might appear static with their picturesque shapes frozen in space, this is very far from the truth. The stars in these dramatic spiral configurations are constantly moving and spinning around the galaxys core, with those on the inside whirling around faster than those sitting further out. This makes the formation and continued existence of a spiral galaxys arms something of a cosmic puzzle, because the arms wrapped around the spinning core should become wound tighter and tighter as time goes on but this is not what we see. This is known as the winding problem.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1711a/

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 1448
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_potw1711a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 3h 44m 39.7s
DEC = -44° 37’ 0.3”
Orientation
North is 25.6° CCW
Field of View
2.7 x 2.4 arcminutes
Constellation
Horologium

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Cyan Hubble (WFC3) Optical (V) 555.0 nm
Orange Hubble (WFC3) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Luminosity Hubble (WFC3) Optical (Very Broad) 350.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Cyan
Orange
Luminosity
Esahubble_potw1711a_1280
×
ID
potw1711a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 1448
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date
2017-03-13T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1711a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Cyan, Orange, Luminosity
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
V, I, Very Broad
Central Wavelength
555, 814, 350
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
56.1652528118, -44.6167621332
Reference Dimension
4064.0, 3598.0
Reference Pixel
2032.0, 1799.0
Scale
-1.10079111259e-05, 1.10079111259e-05
Rotation
25.639999999999969
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
potw1711a
Metadata Date
2016-09-12T08:35:06+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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