Feeling Edgy

Esahubble_potw1930a_1024

esahubble_potw1930a July 29th, 2019

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko, R. Jansen

Believe it or not, this long, luminous streak, speckled with bright blisters and pockets of material, is a spiral galaxy like our Milky Way. But how could that be? It turns out that we see this galaxy, named NGC 3432, orientated directly edge-on to us from our vantage point here on Earth. The galaxys spiral arms and bright core are hidden, and we instead see the thin strip of its very outer reaches. Dark bands of cosmic dust, patches of varying brightness, and pink regions of star formation help with making out the true shape of NGC 3432 but its still somewhat of a challenge! Because observatories such as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have seen spiral galaxies at every kind of orientation, astronomers can tell when we happen to have caught one from the side. The galaxy is located in the constellation of Leo Minor (The Lesser Lion). Other telescopes that have had NGC 3432 in their sights include those of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), and the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS).

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1930a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 3432
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_potw1930a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 10h 52m 30.7s
DEC = 36° 37’ 14.7”
Orientation
North is 115.6° CW
Field of View
3.3 x 2.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Leo Minor

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Orange Hubble (ACS) Optical (H-alpha + NII) 658.0 nm
Cyan Hubble (ACS) Optical (r) 625.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Orange
Cyan
Esahubble_potw1930a_1280
×
ID
potw1930a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 3432
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Filippenko, R. Jansen
Release Date
2019-07-29T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1930a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Orange, Cyan
Band
Optical, Optical
Bandpass
H-alpha + NII, r
Central Wavelength
658, 625
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
163.127710153, 36.6207487741
Reference Dimension
3914.0, 2355.0
Reference Pixel
1957.0, 1177.5
Scale
-1.38977817993e-05, 1.38977817993e-05
Rotation
-115.63999999999999
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
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1930a
Metadata Date
2019-07-09T11:07:02+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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