by Ann » Tue Oct 29, 2019 4:11 am
bystander wrote: ↑Mon Oct 28, 2019 3:05 pm
Lonely Hearts Club
ESA Hubble Picture of the Week | 2019 Oct 28
Galaxies may seem lonely, floating alone in the vast, inky blackness of the sparsely populated cosmos — but looks can be deceiving. The subject of this Picture of the Week,
NGC 1706, is a good example of this. NGC 1706 is a
spiral galaxy, about 230 million light-years away, in the constellation of
Dorado (
The Swordfish).
NGC 1706 is known to belong to something known as a
galaxy group, which is just as the name suggests — a group of up to 50 galaxies which are gravitationally bound and hence relatively close to each other. Around half of the galaxies we know of in the Universe belong to some kind of group, making them incredibly common cosmic structures. Our home galaxy, the
Milky Way, belongs to the
Local Group, which also contains the
Andromeda Galaxy, the
Large and
Small Magellanic Clouds, and the
Triangulum Galaxy.
Groups are the smallest of galactic gatherings; others are
clusters, which can comprise hundreds of thousands of galaxies bound loosely together by gravity, and subsequent
superclusters, which bring together numerous clusters into a single entity.
NGC 1706 is a strikingly beautiful galaxy. There is not a lot of star formation in it, so the galaxy's overall colors are quite red. But the elegant symmetry of its morphology is beautiful to see.
A spiral galaxy that is not just quite red, but also strikingly symmetrical, is almost certain to be large. According to Principal Galaxy Catalog, NGC 1706 is 1.6 times more luminous than the Milky Way.
Ann
[quote=bystander post_id=296526 time=1572275132 user_id=112005]
[url=https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1943a/][size=125][b][i]Lonely Hearts Club[/i][/b][/size][/url]
ESA Hubble Picture of the Week | 2019 Oct 28
[quote]
[float=left][img3="Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Bellini et al"]https://cdn.spacetelescope.org/archives/images/screen/potw1943a.jpg[/img3][/float]Galaxies may seem lonely, floating alone in the vast, inky blackness of the sparsely populated cosmos — but looks can be deceiving. The subject of this Picture of the Week, [url=http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-id?Ident=NGC+1706]NGC 1706[/url], is a good example of this. NGC 1706 is a [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_galaxy]spiral galaxy[/url], about 230 million light-years away, in the constellation of [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorado]Dorado[/url] ([url=http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/dorado.htm]The Swordfish[/url]).
NGC 1706 is known to belong to something known as a [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_group]galaxy group[/url], which is just as the name suggests — a group of up to 50 galaxies which are gravitationally bound and hence relatively close to each other. Around half of the galaxies we know of in the Universe belong to some kind of group, making them incredibly common cosmic structures. Our home galaxy, the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milky_Way]Milky Way[/url], belongs to the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local_Group]Local Group[/url], which also contains the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andromeda_Galaxy]Andromeda Galaxy[/url], the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Magellanic_Cloud]Large[/url] and [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Magellanic_Cloud]Small[/url] [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magellanic_Clouds]Magellanic Clouds[/url], and the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangulum_Galaxy]Triangulum Galaxy[/url].
Groups are the smallest of galactic gatherings; others are [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galaxy_cluster]clusters[/url], which can comprise hundreds of thousands of galaxies bound loosely together by gravity, and subsequent [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercluster]superclusters[/url], which bring together numerous clusters into a single entity. [/quote]
[/quote]
NGC 1706 is a strikingly beautiful galaxy. There is not a lot of star formation in it, so the galaxy's overall colors are quite red. But the elegant symmetry of its morphology is beautiful to see.
A spiral galaxy that is not just quite red, but also strikingly symmetrical, is almost certain to be large. According to Principal Galaxy Catalog, NGC 1706 is 1.6 times more luminous than the Milky Way.
Ann