Flies in a spider's web: Galaxy caught in the making
This image is a composite of many separate exposures made by the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope using several different filters. It shows the Spiderweb Galaxy sitting at the centre of an emergent galaxy cluster, surrounded by hundreds of other galaxies from the cluster.
The image provides a dramatic glimpse of a large massive galaxy under assembly as smaller galaxies merge. This has commonly been thought to be the way galaxies grew in the young Universe, but now the Hubble observations of the radio galaxy MRC 1138-262, nicknamed the "Spiderweb Galaxy", have shown dozens of star-forming satellite galaxies in the actual process of merging.
Credit:About the Image
NASA press release
| Id: | heic0614a |
| Type: | Observation |
| Release date: | 12 October 2006, 12:00 |
| Related releases: | heic0614 |
| Size: | 1706 x 1706 px |
About the Object
| Name: | LEDA 2826829, MRC 1138-262, Spiderweb Galaxy |
| Type: | Early Universe : Galaxy : Type : Interacting |
| Distance: | z=2.156 (redshift) |
| Constellation: | Hydra |
| Category: | Galaxies |
Wallpapers
Coordinates
| Position (RA): | 11 40 48.35 |
| Position (Dec): | -26° 29' 8.46" |
| Field of view: | 0.71 x 0.71 arcminutes |
| Orientation: | North is 175.0° right of vertical |
View in ESASky:
View in WorldWide Telescope:
Colours & filters
| Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
|---|---|---|
| Optical B | 475 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
ACS |
| Optical Pseudogreen (B+I) |
Hubble Space Telescope
ACS | |
| Infrared I | 814 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
ACIS |