File:Caldwell 62.jpg
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Summary
[edit]DescriptionCaldwell 62.jpg |
English: We’ve introduced the Needle galaxy (Caldwell 38) and the Silver Needle galaxy (Caldwell 26) — now meet the Needle’s Eye galaxy. Caldwell 62 (also known as NGC 247) is a dwarf spiral galaxy located about 11 million light-years away in the Sculptor Group — the closest group of galaxies to our own (the Local Group). The galaxy was given its nickname because one end of it features a strange void of stars (not seen in this Hubble close-up of the galaxy’s starry center).
The “hole” in Caldwell 62 is a big mystery. There is a shortage of gas in that part of the galaxy, which means there isn’t much material from which new stars can form. Since star formation has halted in this area, old, faint stars populate the void. Scientists still don’t know how this strange feature formed, but studies hint toward past gravitational interactions with another galaxy. Caldwell 62 is also home to an object known as an ultraluminous X-ray source. Scientists have long debated the nature of these super-bright X-ray sources. Are they stellar-mass black holes gorging on unusually large amounts of gas? Or are they long-sought “intermediate-mass” black holes, dozens of times more massive than their stellar counterparts but smaller than the monster black holes in the centers of most galaxies? By studying Caldwell 62 in multiple forms of light (visible and infrared using Hubble, and X-rays using the Chandra X-ray Observatory), astronomers have found signs that the X-rays are coming from a disk around an intermediate-mass black hole. This Hubble image from the Advanced Camera for Surveys zooms in on the heart of the galaxy, which appears as a bright, whitish area to the lower right of the image's center. Dark patches and filaments of dust are silhouetted against the region’s concentrations of stars. Discovered by astronomer William Herschel in 1784, Caldwell 62 is located in the constellation Cetus and is best viewed in the spring from the Southern Hemisphere. It appears low in the south in autumn skies from the Northern Hemisphere. Its 9.2 magnitude makes it a somewhat challenging target, but its strange “needle’s eye” appearance makes it worth the effort. As with most cosmic objects, the larger the telescope you view it through, the better Caldwell 62 will look. For more information about Hubble’s observations of Caldwell 62, see: www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1640a/ Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA For Hubble's Caldwell catalog site and information on how to find these objects in the night sky, visit: www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/hubble-s-caldwell-catalog |
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Source | https://www.flickr.com/photos/144614754@N02/49210945248/ |
Author | NASA Hubble |
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by NASA Hubble at https://flickr.com/photos/144614754@N02/49210945248 (archive). It was reviewed on 23 February 2020 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0. |
23 February 2020
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Metadata
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Date and time of data generation | 06:00, 3 October 2016 |
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Image title |
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Publisher | ESA/Hubble |
Short title |
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Credit/Provider | ESA/Hubble&NASA |
Source | ESA/Hubble |
Usage terms |
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JPEG file comment | This Hubble image shows the central region of a spiral galaxy known as NGC 247. NGC 247 is a relatively small spiral galaxy in the southern constellation of Cetus (The Whale). Lying at a distance of around 11 million light-years from us, it forms part of the Sculptor Group, a loose collection of galaxies that also contains the more famous NGC 253 (otherwise known as the Sculptor Galaxy). NGC 247’s nucleus is visible here as a bright, whitish patch, surrounded by a mixture of stars, gas and dust. The dust forms dark patches and filaments that are silhouetted against the background of stars, while the gas has formed into bright knots known as H II regions, mostly scattered throughout the galaxy’s arms and outer areas. This galaxy displays one particularly unusual and mysterious feature — it is not visible in this image, but can be seen clearly in wider views of the galaxy, such as this picture from ESO’s MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope. The northern part of NGC 247’s disc hosts an apparent void, a gap in the usual swarm of stars and H II regions that spans almost a third of the galaxy’s total length. There are stars within this void, but they are quite different from those around it. They are significantly older, and as a result much fainter and redder. This indicates that the star formation taking place across most of the galaxy’s disc has somehow been arrested in the void region, and has not taken place for around one billion years. Although astronomers are still unsure how the void formed, recent studies suggest it might have been caused by gravitational interactions with part of another galaxy. |
Orientation | Normal |
Horizontal resolution | 72 dpi |
Vertical resolution | 72 dpi |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop CC 2015 (Windows) |
File change date and time | 11:31, 3 May 2016 |
Y and C positioning | Centered |
Exif version | 2.31 |
Date and time of digitizing | 16:31, 8 April 2016 |
Meaning of each component |
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Supported Flashpix version | 1 |
Color space | Uncalibrated |
Bits per component |
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Height | 3,790 px |
Width | 4,092 px |
Pixel composition | RGB |
Number of components | 3 |
Contact information |
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2 Garching bei München, , D-85748 Germany |
Keywords | NGC 247 |
Type of media | Observation |
Date metadata was last modified | 13:31, 3 May 2016 |
Unique ID of original document | xmp.did:850624b6-6e62-2445-a81a-14a395ed1a53 |