A spiral disguised
Resembling a wizard’s staff set aglow, NGC 1032 cleaves the quiet darkness of space in two in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
NGC 1032 is located about a hundred million light years away in the constellation Cetus (The Sea Monster). Although beautiful, this image perhaps does not do justice to the galaxy’s true aesthetic appeal: NGC 1032 is actually a spectacular spiral galaxy, but from Earth, the galaxy’s vast disc of gas, dust and stars is seen nearly edge-on.
A handful of other galaxies can be seen lurking in the background, scattered around the narrow stripe of NGC 1032. Many are oriented face-on or at tilted angles, showing off their glamorous spiral arms and bright cores. Such orientations provide a wealth of detail about the arms and their nuclei, but fully understanding a galaxy’s three-dimensional structure also requires an edge-on view. This gives astronomers an overall idea of how stars are distributed throughout the galaxy and allows them to measure the “height” of the disc and the bright star-studded core.
Credit:ESA/Hubble & NASA
About the Image
Id: | potw1820a |
Type: | Observation |
Release date: | 14 May 2018, 06:00 |
Size: | 3148 x 3441 px |
About the Object
Name: | NGC 1032 |
Type: | Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral |
Distance: | 100 million light years |
Constellation: | Cetus |
Category: | Galaxies |
Wallpapers
Coordinates
Position (RA): | 2 39 23.64 |
Position (Dec): | 1° 5' 38.41" |
Field of view: | 2.63 x 2.87 arcminutes |
Orientation: | North is 144.5° right of vertical |
Colours & filters
Band | Wavelength | Telescope |
---|---|---|
Optical B | 435 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
ACS |
Optical B | 435 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
ACS |
Optical V | 606 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
ACS |
Optical V | 606 nm |
Hubble Space Telescope
ACS |