Grand swirls

Esahubble_potw1422a_1024

esahubble_potw1422a June 2nd, 2014

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Flickr user Det58

This new Hubble image shows NGC 1566, a beautiful galaxy located approximately 40 million light-years away in the constellation of Dorado (The Dolphinfish). NGC 1566 is an intermediate spiral galaxy, meaning that while it does not have a well defined bar-shaped region of stars at its centre — like barred spirals — it is not quite an unbarred spiral either (heic9902o). The small but extremely bright nucleus of NGC 1566 is clearly visible in this image, a telltale sign of its membership of the Seyfert class of galaxies. The centres of such galaxies are very active and luminous, emitting strong bursts of radiation and potentially harbouring supermassive black holes that are many millions of times the mass of the Sun. NGC 1566 is not just any Seyfert galaxy; it is the second brightest Seyfert galaxy known. It is also the brightest and most dominant member of the Dorado Group, a loose concentration of galaxies that together comprise one of the richest galaxy groups of the southern hemisphere. This image highlights the beauty and awe-inspiring nature of this unique galaxy group, with NGC 1566 glittering and glowing, its bright nucleus framed by swirling and symmetrical lavender arms. This image was taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in the near-infrared part of the spectrum. A version of the image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by Flickr user Det58.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw1422a/

Curator: ESA/Hubble, Baltimore, MD, United States

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 1566
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Galaxy > Activity > AGN > Seyfert
Esahubble_potw1422a_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 4h 20m 0.3s
DEC = -54° 56’ 12.0”
Orientation
North is 129.1° CCW
Field of View
2.8 x 2.6 arcminutes
Constellation
Dorado

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Ultraviolet (UV) 275.0 nm
Magenta Hubble (WFC3) Ultraviolet (U) 336.0 nm
Blue Hubble (WFC3) Optical (B) 438.0 nm
Green Hubble (WFC3) Optical (V) 555.0 nm
Red Hubble (WFC3) Infrared (I) 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Magenta
Blue
Green
Red
Esahubble_potw1422a_1280
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ID
potw1422a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1   C.5.3.2.2  
Subject Name
NGC 1566
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Flickr user Det58
Release Date
2014-06-02T10:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/potw1422a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3, WFC3
Color Assignment
Blue, Magenta, Blue, Green, Red
Band
Ultraviolet, Ultraviolet, Optical, Optical, Infrared
Bandpass
UV, U, B, V, I
Central Wavelength
275, 336, 438, 555, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
65.0011414045, -54.9366733896
Reference Dimension
4182.0, 3897.0
Reference Pixel
2091.0, 1948.0
Scale
-1.10277081063e-05, 1.10277081063e-05
Rotation
129.12000000000023
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
ESA/Hubble
URL
https://esahubble.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
ESA Office, Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Dr
City
Baltimore
State/Province
MD
Postal Code
21218
Country
United States
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
ESA/Hubble
Publisher ID
esahubble
Resource ID
potw1422a
Metadata Date
2014-01-16T17:31:32+01:00
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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