A hypnotic golden spiral

Eso_potw2211a_1024

eso_potw2211a March 14th, 2022

Credit: ESO/PHANGS

This image features the spectacular galaxy NGC 4254, also known as Messier 99. It’s an example of a grand design spiral galaxy, featuring strong, prominent, well-defined arms that wrap clearly around the galaxy’s centre. Messier 99 is located 49 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Coma Berenices. Here it was imaged in exquisite detail by the Multi-Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). It is a combination of observations conducted in different colours, or wavelengths, of light, showing clouds of gas ionised by newly born stars. Hydrogen, oxygen and sulphur gas are shown in red, blue and orange respectively. The image was taken as part of the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS (PHANGS) project, which is making high-resolution observations of nearby galaxies across all wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum to understand the life-cycle of star formation in galaxies.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2211a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 4254
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Eso_potw2211a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 18m 50.6s
DEC = 14° 25’ 22.8”
Orientation
North is 90.0° CCW
Field of View
3.9 x 2.7 arcminutes
Constellation
Coma Berenices

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red VLT (MUSE) Optical (H-alpha) 656.0 nm
Orange VLT (MUSE) Optical (SII) 673.0 nm
Blue VLT (MUSE) Optical (O III) 499.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Orange
Blue
Eso_potw2211a_1280
×
ID
potw2211a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 4254
Credits
ESO/PHANGS
Release Date
2022-03-14T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2211a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope
Instrument
MUSE, MUSE, MUSE
Color Assignment
Red, Orange, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
H-alpha, SII, O III
Central Wavelength
656, 673, 499
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
184.711002488, 14.4230010271
Reference Dimension
1172.0, 800.0
Reference Pixel
586.0, 400.0
Scale
-5.55768624182e-05, 5.55768624182e-05
Rotation
89.980000000000018
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
https://www.eso.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
potw2211a
Metadata Date
2021-06-08T15:21:58+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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