A Galactic Traffic Jam

Esahubble_potw2009a_1024

esahubble_potw2009a March 2nd, 2020

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, P. Erwin et al.

The barred spiral galaxy NGC 3887, seen here as viewed by the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, lies over 60 million light-years away from us in the southern constellation of Crater (The Cup); it was discovered on 31 December 1785 by the German/British astronomer William Herschel. Its orientation to us, while not exactly face-on, allows us to see NGC 3887s spiral arms and central bulge in detail, making it an ideal target for studying a spiral galaxys winding arms and the stars within them. The very existence of spiral arms was for a long time a problem for astronomers. The arms emanate from a spinning core and should therefore become wound up ever more tightly, causing them to eventually disappear after a (cosmologically) short amount of time. It was only in the 1960s that astronomers came up with the solution to this winding problem; rather than behaving like rigid structures, spiral arms are in fact areas of greater density in a galaxys disc, with dynamics similar to those of a traffic jam. The density of cars moving through a traffic jam increases at the centre of the jam, where they move more slowly. Spiral arms function in a similar way; as gas and dust move through the density waves they become compressed and linger, before moving out of them again.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw2009a/

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

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 3887
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Esahubble_potw2009a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 11h 47m 4.6s
DEC = -16° 51’ 16.6”
Orientation
North is 74.6° CW
Field of View
0.6 x 0.7 arcminutes
Constellation
Crater

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (H) 1.6 µm
Orange Hubble (WFC3) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Cyan Hubble (WFC3) Optical (g) 475.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Orange
Cyan
Esahubble_potw2009a_1280
×
ID
potw2009a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 3887
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, P. Erwin et al.
Release Date
2020-03-02T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw2009a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Red, Orange, Cyan
Band
Infrared, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
H, I, g
Central Wavelength
1600, 814, 475
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
176.769019702, -16.8546173707
Reference Dimension
973.0, 1009.0
Reference Pixel
486.5, 504.5
Scale
-1.10066633921e-05, 1.10066633921e-05
Rotation
-74.639999999999915
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
potw2009a
Metadata Date
2019-09-19T15:43:40+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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