During its career, the Hubble Space Telescope has taken thousands, if not millions, of pictures. But not all are as successful as the magnificent photo of NGC 2275 that has just been highlighted by NASA.
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Put into orbit in 1990, the Hubble Space Telescope is able to take pictures with angular resolution less than 0.1 arc seconds thanks to its 2.4 meter diameter mirror. This allows him to take detailed photos of stars yet very distant.
A perfect example of a cottony spiral galaxy
In 2021, the future space telescope still in development phase James-Webb to replace Hubble for infrared observations. The thirty-year-old satellite, however, has many good years ahead of it, since its deorbiting is not expected for a good decade. However, its story could have been very different since very soon after its launch was discovered a major defect in the design of its mirror allows it to take only blurry photos.
Fortunately 3 years later was launched the STS-61 rescue mission who then allowed the astronauts to to repair Hubble aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor. It is the success of this mission and the 4 that followed it that allows today the impressive photograph of thea galaxie NGC 2775 despite a distance of 67 million light years.
If its center is almost empty, the disk which composes it shows a plethora of stars. These millions of stars are bright and blue, indicating a recent birth. NGC 2775 not having unequal spiral arms like our Milky Way is a perfect specimen of cottony spiral galaxy or flocculent. Espace offers an incredible spectacle for those who like to look at the stars. It is for them that we regularly publish the most beautiful photos.
Source : BGR
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