Euclid's View of Spiral Galaxy IC 342

Ensci_euclid20231107a2_1024

ensci_euclid20231107a2 November 7th, 2023

Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA

Over its lifetime, our dark Universe detective will image billions of galaxies, revealing the hidden influence that dark matter and dark energy have on them.

That’s why it’s fitting that one of the first galaxies that Euclid observed is nicknamed the ‘Hidden Galaxy’. This galaxy, also known as IC 342 or Caldwell 5, is difficult to observe because it lies behind the busy disc of our Milky Way, and so dust, gas and stars obscure our view.

Euclid could take this beautiful and sharp image thanks to its incredible sensitivity and superb optics. Most important here is that Euclid used its near-infrared instrument to peer through the dust and measure the light from the many cool and low-mass stars that dominate the galaxy's mass.

Technical details: The data in this image were taken in just about one hour of observation. This color image was obtained by combining VIS data and NISP photometry in Y and H bands; its size is 8800 x 8800 pixels. VIS and NISP enable observing astronomical sources in four different wavelength ranges. Aesthetics choices led to the selection of three out of these four bands to be cast onto the traditional Red-Green-Blue color channels used to represent images on our digital screens (RGB).

The blue, green, red channels capture the Universe seen by Euclid around the wavelength 0.7, 1.1, and 1.7 micron respectively. This gives Euclid a distinctive color palette: hot stars have a white-blue hue, excited hydrogen gas appears in the blue channel, and regions rich in dust and molecular gas have a clear red hue. Distant redshifted background galaxies appear very red. In the image, the stars have six prominent spikes due to how light interacts with the optical system of the telescope in the process of diffraction. Another signature of Euclid special optics is the presence of a few, very faint and small round regions of a fuzzy blue colour. These are normal artifacts of complex optical systems, so-called ‘optical ghost’; easily identifiable during data analysis, they do not cause any problem for the science goals.

Credit: ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA, image processing by J.-C. Cuillandre (CEA Paris-Saclay), G. Anselmi; CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Provider: Euclid

Image Source: https://euclid.caltech.edu/image/euclid20231107a2-euclids-view-of-spiral-galaxy-ic-342

Curator: Euclid-ESA

Image Use Policy: http://www.esa.int/spaceinvideos/Terms_and_Conditions

Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
IC 342
Subject - Milky Way
Galaxy > Type > Spiral

Distance Details Distance

Universescale2
10,700,000 light years
Ensci_euclid20231107a2_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 3h 46m 47.7s
DEC = 68° 5’ 52.0”
Orientation
North is 43.5° CCW
Field of View
41.0 x 41.0 arcminutes
Constellation
Camelopardalis

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Euclid (VIS) Optical 700.0 nm
Green Euclid (NISP) Infrared 1.1 µm
Red Euclid (NISP) Infrared 1.7 µm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Red
Ensci_euclid20231107a2_1280
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ID
euclid20231107a2
Subject Category
B.5.1.1.  
Subject Name
IC 342
Credits
ESA/Euclid/Euclid Consortium/NASA
Release Date
2023-11-07
Lightyears
10,700,000
Redshift
10,700,000
Reference Url
https://euclid.caltech.edu/image/euclid20231107a2-euclids-view-of-spiral-galaxy-ic-342
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Good
Distance Notes
Facility
Euclid, Euclid, Euclid
Instrument
VIS, NISP, NISP
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Red
Band
Optical, Infrared, Infrared
Bandpass
Central Wavelength
700, 1100, 1700
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
Reference Value
56.698886672569991, 68.097788064669217
Reference Dimension
3000, 3000
Reference Pixel
1500, 1500
Scale
-0.0002276, 0.0002276
Rotation
43.53
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
Euclid-ESA
URL
https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Euclid
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
City
State/Province
Publisher
Euclid NASA Science Center at IPAC (ENSCI)
Publisher ID
ensci
Resource ID
Metadata Date
2023-11-21T08:15:16Z
Metadata Version
1.2
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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Universescalefull
10,700,000 light years

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