This starry sky of the Hubble Space Telescope is, to quote Coldplay, a celestial vision.
This is a galactic image from the Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys of the telescope, centered on NGC 3631. The spiral arms of the “Grand Design Spiral”, as this object is called, are absolutely full of stars. .
Blue represents the visible wavelengths of blue, and orange shows infrared or heat-rich areas that are otherwise difficult to see due to dust on the road.
Related: The Best Hubble Space Telescope Images of All Time!
“Spiral star formation [galaxies] it is similar to an interstate traffic jam, “NASA said in a statement (opens in a new tab) about the new image on May 26.
“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. of matter can become so dense that it sinks gravitationally, creating new stars: here they are seen in bright blue-white. “
This image from NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope features the Great Design Spiral, better known officially as NGC 3631. (Image credit: NASA, ESA, A. Filippenko (University of California – Berkeley) and D. Sand (University of California – Berkeley) Arizona Image Processing: G. Kober (NASA Goddard / Catholic University of America) (opens in new tab)
Located 53 million light-years from Earth, NGC 3631 is located in the constellation Ursa Major and represents one of the many galaxies that Hubble officials have been showing in recent weeks.
Hubble’s galactic research includes fields such as learning about dark matter concentrations, which help provide clues about the structure of the universe as a whole, along with galaxy collisions, formation scenarios, and types, according to a NASA page (opens in a new tab) showing the science of the telescope.
“From supermassive black holes in galactic centers to star-forming giant bursts to titanic collisions between galaxies, these discoveries allow astronomers to investigate the current properties of galaxies and examine how they formed and developed in the galaxy. over time, “NASA told the scientific expert. .
Hubble’s 32 years of orbiting research will soon have a companion in deep space. The James Webb Space Telescope is completing its launch in Lagrange 2 to extend Hubble’s work even further into the universe.
“Galaxies show us how matter is organized in the universe on a large scale. To understand the nature and history of the universe, scientists study how matter is currently organized and how that organization has changed over time. cosmic time “, NASA officials. wrote (opens in a new tab) the expected work of Webb, which will focus on the first galaxies in our universe.
Some of Webb’s Cycle 1 studies (opens in a new tab) for galaxies will focus on issues such as star formation, the first galaxies with “low metallicity” (rich in hydrogen and helium). the dwarf spheroidal galaxies and the famous Andromeda galaxy. (M31) satellite galaxy system.
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