A flock of stars

Esahubble_potw1336a_1024

esahubble_potw1336a September 9th, 2013

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Luca Limatola

The glittering specks in this image, resembling a distant flock of flying birds, are the stars that make up the dwarf galaxy ESO 540-31. Captured in this new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, the dwarf galaxy lies just over 11 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation of Cetus (The Whale). The background of this image is full of many other galaxies, all located at vast distances from us. Dwarf galaxies are the among the smaller and dimmer members of the galactic family, typically only containing around a few hundred million stars. Although this sounds like a large number, it is small when compared to spiral galaxies like our Milky Way, which are made up of hundreds of billions of stars. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Luca Limatola.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1336a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
DDO 6 • ESO 540-31
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Size > Dwarf
Esahubble_potw1336a_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 0h 49m 49.1s
DEC = -21° 0’ 55.2”
Orientation
North is 55.9° CCW
Field of View
3.3 x 1.6 arcminutes
Constellation
Cetus

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Orange Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) 475.0 nm
Cyan Hubble (ACS) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Orange
Cyan
Esahubble_potw1336a_1280
×
ID
potw1336a
Subject Category
C.5.2.2  
Subject Name
DDO 6, ESO 540-31
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Luca Limatola
Release Date
2013-09-09T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1336a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Orange, Cyan
Band
Optical, Infrared
Bandpass
B, I
Central Wavelength
475, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
12.454533883, -21.0153465036
Reference Dimension
3927.0, 1900.0
Reference Pixel
1963.0, 950.0
Scale
-1.39141963675e-05, 1.39141963675e-05
Rotation
55.919999999999966
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
http://www.spacetelescope.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
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1336a
Resource URL
http://www.spacetelescope.org/static/archives/images/original/potw1336a.tif
Related Resources
Metadata Date
2013-06-14T16:42:48+02:00
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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