A spiral disguised

Esahubble_potw1820a_1024

esahubble_potw1820a May 14th, 2018

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

Resembling a wizards staff set aglow, NGC 1032 cleaves the quiet darkness of space in two in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 1032 is located about a hundred million light years away in the constellation Cetus (The Sea Monster). Although beautiful, this image perhaps does not do justice to the galaxys true aesthetic appeal: NGC 1032 is actually a spectacular spiral galaxy, but from Earth, the galaxys vast disc of gas, dust and stars is seen nearly edge-on. A handful of other galaxies can be seen lurking in the background, scattered around the narrow stripe of NGC 1032. Many are oriented face-on or at tilted angles, showing off their glamorous spiral arms and bright cores. Such orientations provide a wealth of detail about the arms and their nuclei, but fully understanding a galaxys three-dimensional structure also requires an edge-on view. This gives astronomers an overall idea of how stars are distributed throughout the galaxy and allows them to measure the height of the disc and the bright star-studded core.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1820a/

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 1032
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_potw1820a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 2h 39m 23.6s
DEC = 1° 5’ 38.4”
Orientation
North is 144.5° CW
Field of View
2.6 x 2.9 arcminutes
Constellation
Cetus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) 435.0 nm
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) 435.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Green
Blue
Esahubble_potw1820a_1280
×
ID
potw1820a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 1032
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA
Release Date
2018-05-14T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1820a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
V, V, B, B
Central Wavelength
606, 606, 435, 435
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
39.8485050573, 1.09400191507
Reference Dimension
3148.0, 3441.0
Reference Pixel
1574.0, 1720.0
Scale
-1.39009636058e-05, 1.39009636058e-05
Rotation
-144.53999999999979
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
potw1820a
Metadata Date
2018-03-09T10:35:11+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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