All lined up

Esahubble_potw2350a_1024

esahubble_potw2350a December 11th, 2023

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/NOIRLab/NSF/AURAAcknowledgement: L. Shatz

This image features an interacting galaxy system known as Arp-Madore 2105-332, that lies about 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Microscopium. Like other recent Hubble Pictures of the Week, this system belongs to the Arp-Madore catalogue of peculiar galaxies. The wonderful quality of this image also reveals several further galaxies, not associated with this system but fortuitously positioned in such a way that they appear to be forming a line that approaches the leftmost (in this image) component of Arp-Madore 2105-332, which is known individually as 2MASX J21080752-3314337. The rightmost galaxy, meanwhile, is known as 2MASX J21080362-3313196. These hefty names do not lend themselves to easy memorisation, but they do actually contain valuable information: they are coordinates in the right ascension and declination system used widely by astronomers to locate astronomical objects. Both the galaxies are of a type known as emission-line galaxies. This simply means that, when observed with spectrometers, the spectra of both galaxies exhibit characteristic bright peaks, known as emission lines. This is distinct from, for example, absorption-line galaxies whose spectra contain distinct gaps, known as absorption lines. Emission lines are produced when gases are very hot, and therefore have sufficient energy that the atoms and molecules are ‘excited’ and emit light. In other words, emission-line galaxies are highly energetic places, marking them out as likely hotbeds of star formation. As with many galaxy types, categorising a galaxy as an emission-line galaxy does not exclude it from having other descriptions that refer to its other properties. Arp-Madore 2105-332, for example, is also a ‘peculiar’ galaxy, reflecting the atypical shapes of its two constituent galaxies. [Image Description: A pair of interacting galaxies, one smaller than the other. Each has a bright spot at the centre and two loosely-wound spiral arms, with threads of dark dust following the arms. They appear as a broad, soft glow in which individual stars can’t be seen. A number of bright stars and smaller, background galaxies can also be seen — three such galaxies lie in a vertical line below the right-hand galaxy of the pair.] Links Pan of Arp-Madore 2105-332

Provider: Hubble Space Telescope | ESA

Image Source: https://esahubble.org/images/potw2350a/

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
ESO 402-10 ESO 402-9 LEDA 678973
Esahubble_potw2350a_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 21h 8m 5.7s
DEC = -33° 14’ 12.9”
Orientation
North is 46.4° CW
Field of View
3.4 x 2.7 arcminutes
Constellation
Microscopium

Color Mapping Details 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_potw2350a_1280
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ID
potw2350a
Subject Category
Subject Name
ESO 402-10, ESO 402-9, LEDA 678973
Credits
ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, Dark Energy Survey/DOE/FNAL/NOIRLab/NSF/AURAAcknowledgement: L. Shatz
Release Date
2023-12-11T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://esahubble.org/images/potw2350a/
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
317.02364088449934, -33.23692323936442
Reference Dimension
4060.0, 3231.0
Reference Pixel
2030.0, 1615.5
Scale
-1.3890669483270536e-05, 1.3890669483270536e-05
Rotation
-46.379999999999889
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
potw2350a
Metadata Date
2023-12-14T17:14:24.756595
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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