Hubble Inspects A Pair of Space Oddities

Esahubble_potw2244a_1024

esahubble_potw2244a October 31st, 2022

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, J. Dalcanton

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows two of the galaxies in the galactic triplet Arp 248 — also known as Wild's Triplet — which lies around 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. The two large spiral galaxies visible in this image — which flank a smaller, unrelated background spiral galaxy — seem to be connected by a luminous bridge. This elongated stream of stars and interstellar dust is known as a tidal tail, and it was formed by the mutual gravitational attraction of the two foreground galaxies. This observation comes from a project which delves into two rogues’ galleries of weird and wonderful galaxies: A Catalogue Of Southern Peculiar Galaxies And Associations, compiled by astronomers Halton Arp and Barry Madore, and the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, compiled by Halton Arp. Each collection contains a menagerie of spectacularly peculiar galaxies, including interacting galaxies such as Arp 248, as well as one- or three-armed spiral galaxies, galaxies with shell-like structures, and a variety of other space oddities. Hubble used its Advanced Camera for Surveys to scour this menagerie of eccentric galaxies in search of promising candidates for future observations with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, and Hubble itself. With such a wealth of astronomical objects to study in the night sky, projects such as this, which guide future observations, are a valuable investment of observing time. As well as the scientific merits of observing these weird and wonderful galaxies, they were also — very unusually — selected as Hubble targets because of their visual appeal to the general public! [Image description: Two spiral galaxies are viewed almost face-on; they are a mix of pale blue and yellow in colour, crossed by strands of dark red dust. They lie in the upper-left and lower-right corners. A long, faint streak of pale blue joins them, extending from an arm of one galaxy and crossing the field diagonally. A small spiral galaxy, orange in colour, is visible edge-on, left of the lower galaxy.] Links Video of Hubble Inspects A Pair of Space Oddities 

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2244a/

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

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Arp 248
Esahubble_potw2244a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 11h 46m 40.8s
DEC = -3° 51’ 9.1”
Orientation
North is 33.3° CW
Field of View
3.0 x 3.3 arcminutes
Constellation
Virgo

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Blue Blanco-4m (DECam) Optical (G) 474.0 nm
Green Blanco-4m (DECam) Optical (R) 644.0 nm
Red Blanco-4m (DECam) Optical (Z) 919.0 nm
Luminosity Hubble (ACS) Optical (V) 606.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Blue
Green
Red
Luminosity
Esahubble_potw2244a_1280
×
ID
potw2244a
Subject Category
Subject Name
Arp 248
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA, J. Dalcanton
Release Date
2022-10-31T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/potw2244a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope
Instrument
DECam, DECam, DECam, ACS
Color Assignment
Blue, Green, Red, Luminosity
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
G, R, Z, V
Central Wavelength
474, 644, 919, 606
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
176.66999718391617, -3.852538739742711
Reference Dimension
3623.0, 3999.0
Reference Pixel
1811.5, 1999.5
Scale
-1.3902587958414215e-05, 1.3902587958414215e-05
Rotation
-33.280000000000108
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
potw2244a
Metadata Date
2022-10-27T04:04:46+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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