Hubble revisits NGC 4414: The Majestic Spiral Galaxy

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured stunning new images of unobstructed spiral galaxy NGC 4414.

NGC4414 It is located approximately 51 million light years from Earth in the constellation Coma.

The galaxy, also known as the Dusty Spiral Galaxy, Ark 365, IRAS 12239+3129, LEDA 40692, or UGC 7539, has a diameter of approximately 56,000 light years.

NGC 4414 was first discovered on March 13, 1785 by German-born British astronomer William Herschel.

galaxy belong to It belongs to the Coma I group, a group of galaxies close to the Virgo cluster.

NGC 4414 was previously observed It was studied by Hubble in 1995 and 1999 as part of its research efforts. Cepheid variable star.

This collage features the supernova observed by Hubble in NGC 4414. In the upper left, a large spiral galaxy can be seen tilted diagonally. Each subsequent panel shows a close-up of the galaxy in 1999, 2021, and 2023 to highlight the galaxy's supernovae. Image credits: NASA / ESA / Hubble / O. Graur / SW Jha / A. Filippenko.

“Cepheid stars are a special type of variable star with very stable and predictable brightness changes,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.

“The period of these fluctuations is determined by the star's physical properties, such as its mass and true brightness.”

“This means that astronomers can learn about the physical properties of Cepheids just by looking at their light fluctuations, and can use that very effectively to determine their distances.”

“For this reason, cosmologists refer to Cepheids as 'standard candles.'”

“Astronomers used Hubble to observe Cepheids like those in NGC 4414, and the results were surprising.”

“Cepheids were then used as a stepping stone to measure distances to supernovae, which in turn gave us a measure of the size of the universe.”

“Today we can tell the age of the universe with much greater precision than before Hubble: about 13.7 billion years.”