NGC 4753 is characterized by a bright white core and distinct dust lanes around the core.
This Hubble image shows part of the lenticular galaxy NGC 4753, about 60 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Kelsey.
NGC4753 It is located approximately 60 million light years away in the constellation Virgo.
Also known as LEDA 43671, UGC 8009, or IRAS 12498-0055, this lenticular galaxy was discovered by German-born British astronomer William Herschel on February 22, 1784.
NGC 4753 is a member of galaxy group NGC 4753 in the Virgo II cloud, a collection of at least 100 galaxy clusters and individual galaxies extending from the southern edge of the Virgo Supercluster.
“NGC 4753 is thought to be the result of a galaxy merger with a nearby dwarf galaxy about 1.3 billion years ago,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“The unique dust lanes around the galactic cores are thought to be formed by this merging event.”
“Most of the galaxy's mass is now thought to reside within a slightly flattened spherical halo of dark matter.”
“Dark matter is a type of matter that cannot currently be directly observed, but it is thought to make up about 85% of all matter in the universe,” the researchers said.
“It is called 'dark' because it does not appear to interact with electromagnetic fields and therefore does not appear to emit, reflect, or refract light.”
“This object is also of scientific interest for testing various theories about the formation of lenticular galaxies, given its low-density environment and complex structure.”
“Additionally, this galaxy has experienced two known Type Ia supernovae.”
“These types of supernovae are very important because they are caused by the explosion of a white dwarf star with a companion star and always peak at the same brightness, or 5 billion times brighter than the Sun.”
“Knowing the true brightness of these events and comparing it to their apparent brightness gives astronomers a unique opportunity to measure distances in the universe.”
This new image of NGC 4753 consists of observations from Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) found in the ultraviolet and optical parts of the spectrum.
Two filters were used to sample different wavelengths. Color is obtained by assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
Source: www.sci.news
