ann1802 — Announcement

Hubblecast 107: Decoding the colours of NGC 3344

14 February 2018

Such a cosmic beauty is sure to get some admirers this Valentine's Day. While distant, and seemingly mysterious, this beautiful spiral galaxy is providing astronomers with lots of clues about its character and internal composition — just with the colours it emits.

Whereas our eyes detect only visible light, Hubble has a variety of instruments on board that detect a wide range of different wavelengths. This means that Hubble is able to observe galaxies with light from different parts of the spectrum, revealing features that would otherwise remain hidden. What does it mean when a star emits lots of blue light? What if a region shines brightly in infrared light?

This new Hubblecast episode examines what Hubble can tell us about the beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 3344.