Galactic Close-Up

Esahubble_potw2116a_1024

esahubble_potw2116a April 19th, 2021

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Maund

This image shows a close-up portrait of the magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4603, which lies over 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus (The Centaur). Bright bands of blue young stars make up the arms of this galaxy, which wind lazily outwards from the luminous core. The intricate red-brown filaments threading through the spiral arms are known as dust lanes, and consist of dense clouds of dust which obscure the diffuse starlight from the galaxy. This galaxy is a familiar subject for Hubble. In the last years of the twentieth century, NGC 4603 was keenly and closely watched for signs of a peculiar class of stars known as Cepheid variables. These stars have a luminosity closely tied to the period with which they darken and brighten, allowing astronomers to accurately measure how far they are from Earth. Distance measurements from Cepheid variables are key to measuring the furthest distances in the Universe, and were one of the factors used by Georges Lemaître and Edwin Hubble to show that the Universe is expanding.

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2116a/

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

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 4603
Esahubble_potw2116a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 40m 55.6s
DEC = -40° 58’ 11.9”
Orientation
North is 4.0° CCW
Field of View
0.8 x 0.8 arcminutes
Constellation
Centaurus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Hubble (ACS) Optical (B) 435.0 nm
Green Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 555.0 nm
Red Hubble (ACS) Optical (I) 814.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Red
Esahubble_potw2116a_1280
×
ID
potw2116a
Subject Category
Subject Name
NGC 4603
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Maund
Release Date
2021-04-19T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/potw2116a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
ACS, ACS, ACS
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Red
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
B, V, I
Central Wavelength
435, 555, 814
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
190.23178757580774, -40.96995948828961
Reference Dimension
985.0, 987.0
Reference Pixel
492.5, 493.5
Scale
-1.3905592873550519e-05, 1.3905592873550519e-05
Rotation
4.0400000000000009
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
potw2116a
Metadata Date
2021-03-02T18:03:41+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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