In this new image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures the glow of spiral galaxy NGC 4951.
This Hubble image shows NGC 4951, a spiral galaxy about 49 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. Image courtesy of NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Thilker / M. Zamani, ESA and Hubble.
NGC 4951 is located about 49 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo.
Also known as AGC 530015, IRAS 13025-0613, or LEDA 45246, the galaxy has a diameter of about 65,000 light-years.
It was discovered on April 17, 1784 by German-born British astronomer William Herschel.
The new image of NGC 4951 is Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) is in the ultraviolet, infrared, and optical parts of the spectrum.
It is based on data acquired through six filters: color is generated by assigning a different hue to each monochrome image associated with an individual filter.
“The data used to create this image was taken by Hubble as part of a program to study how matter and energy move in nearby galaxies,” Hubble astronomers said. statement.
“Galaxy undergoes continuous cycles of star formation: gas within galaxies forms molecular clouds, which collapse to form new stars, and then the formed clouds are dispersed by powerful radiation and stellar winds in a process called feedback.”
“The remaining gas will form new clouds elsewhere,” the researchers added.
“This cycle of matter and energy transfer determines how quickly a galaxy forms stars and how quickly it exhausts its supply of gas — in other words, how the galaxy evolves throughout its life.”
“To understand this evolution, we need to know the nebulae, stars and star clusters in our galaxy, when they formed and what their past behavior is.”
“The Hubble Telescope has always excelled at measuring stellar populations, and its work tracking gas and star formation in galaxies including NGC 4951 is no exception,” the astronomers noted.
NGC 4951 is also classified as a Seyfert galaxy, a type of galaxy that has a so-called active galactic nucleus.
“The image gives a good glimpse into how energetic the galaxy is and some of the dynamic galactic activity that transports matter and energy throughout the galaxy: a glowing core surrounded by swirling arms, pink-hued star-forming regions, and thick dust,” the researchers said.
Source: www.sci.news
