The starburst galaxy NGC 908

Eso_eso0627a_1024

eso_eso0627a July 26th, 2006

Credit: ESO

NGC 908, located 65 million light-years towards the constellation of Cetus (the Whale). This spiral galaxy, discovered in 1786 by William Herschel, is a so-called starburst galaxy, that is, a galaxy undergoing a phase where it spawns stars at a frantic rate. Clusters of young and massive stars can be seen in the spiral arms. Two supernovae, the explosions of massive stars, have been recorded in the near past: one in 1994 and another in May of this year. The galaxy, which is about 75 000 light-years long, also clearly presents uneven and thick spiral arms, the one on the left appearing to go upwards, forming a kind of ribbon. These properties indicate that NGC 908 most probably suffered a close encounter with another galaxy, even though none is visible at present.Data obtained with FORS2 on ESO's Very Large Telescope in the night of 13 to 14 August 2000, using images through B, V, and R filters, for a total exposure time of 4 minutes only. North is up and East is to the left. The data were extracted from the ESO Science Archive and further processed by Henri Boffin (ESO).

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0627a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 908
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Activity > Starburst
Eso_eso0627a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 2h 23m 4.6s
DEC = -21° 14’ 2.3”
Orientation
North is 0.1° CW
Field of View
6.3 x 5.5 arcminutes
Constellation
Cetus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red VLT (FORS2) Optical (R) 655.0 nm
Green VLT (FORS2) Optical (V) 557.0 nm
Blue VLT (FORS2) Optical (B) 440.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Eso_eso0627a_1280
×
ID
eso0627a
Subject Category
C.5.3.3  
Subject Name
NGC 908
Credits
ESO
Release Date
2006-07-26T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso0627a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Distance in light years from NED.
Facility
Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope
Instrument
FORS2, FORS2, FORS2
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
R, V, B
Central Wavelength
655, 557, 440
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
35.769137, -21.233961
Reference Dimension
1944.0, 1695.0
Reference Pixel
1066.07208854, 850.145134318
Scale
-5.408413e-05, 5.408413e-05
Rotation
-0.08755585679
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.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
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso0627a
Metadata Date
2009-01-07T16:21:18+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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