A cosmic atlas

Esahubble_potw1730a_1024

esahubble_potw1730a July 24th, 2017

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

This beautiful clump of glowing gas, dark dust, and glittering stars is the spiral galaxy NGC 4248, located about 24 million light-years away in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). This image was produced by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope as it embarked upon compiling the first Hubble ultraviolet atlas, for which the telescope targeted 50 nearby star-forming galaxies. A sample spanning all kinds of different morphologies, masses, and structures. Studying this sample can help us to piece together the star-formation history of the Universe. By exploring how massive stars form and evolve within such galaxies, astronomers can learn more about how, when, and where star formation occurs, how star clusters change over time, and how the process of forming new stars is related to the properties of both the host galaxy and the surrounding interstellar medium (the stuff that fills the space between individual stars). This image is formed of observations from Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1730a/

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 4248
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_potw1730a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 17m 50.9s
DEC = 47° 24’ 34.1”
Orientation
North is 29.5° CW
Field of View
1.7 x 1.6 arcminutes
Constellation
Canes Venatici

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Optical (V) 555.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (B) 438.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Ultraviolet (UV) 336.0 nm
Purple Hubble (WFC3) Ultraviolet (UV) 275.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Blue
Purple
Esahubble_potw1730a_1280
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ID
potw1730a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 4248
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date
2017-07-24T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1730a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue, Blue, Purple
Band
Infrared, Optical, Optical, Ultraviolet, Ultraviolet
Bandpass
I, V, B, UV, UV
Central Wavelength
814, 555, 438, 336, 275
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
184.461958316, 47.4094598605
Reference Dimension
2561.0, 2429.0
Reference Pixel
1280.5, 1214.5
Scale
-1.10111041536e-05, 1.10111041536e-05
Rotation
-29.540000000000038
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
potw1730a
Metadata Date
2017-02-20T14:33:50+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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