Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/Bob Ferguson and Richard Desruisseau/Adam Block

At a distance of 23 million light years away, NGC 1058 is most likely an intrinsically small spiral galaxy. However the host of bright blue and pink regions shows that this galaxy is actively forming stars. NGC 1058 also harbors a bit of a mystery. This galaxy has had several supernovae go off in the past. However, the nature of the explosion that was observed in 1961 (SN1961 V) is still a bit of a mystery even today. When stars explode they leave behind violently expanding shells of gas. NGC 1058 is close enough to us that telescopes like HST and the VLBA can resolve stars and small features in this galaxy; however there does not seem to be a good candidate for the explosion, but there is a star near to the position. In addition there is an expanding shell of gas as measured by the radio data. So astronomers seemed to have settled on the idea of a supernova explosion- but recent papers on the subject suggest that this object "should be monitored photometrically and spectroscopically for variability in order to understand its nature and relationship to SN1961 V." For the truly interested, the position of the area of interest is at about 4 O'clock- horizontal to the bright star (with a close companion) to the right. This image was taken as part of Advanced Observing Program (AOP) program at Kitt Peak Visitor Center during 2014.

Provider: NOIRLab

Image Source: https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noao-n1058ferguson/

Curator: NSF's NOIRLab, Tucson, AZ, USA

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License