By NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center on May 30, 2022
Image from NGC 3631 Hubble Space Telescope, the Great Design Spiral, located about 53 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Ossa Major. Credits: NASA, ESA, A. Filippenko (University of California – Berkeley) and D. Sand (University of Arizona); Image processing: G. Kober (NASA Goddard / Catholic University of America)
This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope features the Great Design Spiral, NGC 3631, located about 53 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Ursa Major. The “arms” of the spirals of great design seem to roll around and toward the core of the galaxy.
Unlike multi-arm, flocculent spirals, which have softer structural elements, a large-designed spiral galaxy has obvious, well-defined spiral arms. The spiral arms of a large design galaxy clearly extend across the galaxy across many radians and can be seen in a considerable proportion of the radius of the galaxy.
A close inspection of the large spiral arms of NGC 3631 reveals dark dust lanes and bright star-forming regions along the inside of the spiral arms. Spiral star formation is similar to an interstate traffic jam. Like cars on the freeway, the slower moving matter on the spiral disk creates a bottleneck, concentrating the gas and dust that form stars along the inside of its spiral arms. This matter jam can become so dense that it sinks gravitationally, creating new stars (seen here in a bright blue-white).
The image uses data collected from the Wide Field Camera 3 and Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. Blue represents the visible wavelengths of blue light, and orange represents infrared light.