In honor of the upcoming holidays, the space telescope captured a photo of the galaxy UGC 8091, which is enriched with countless twinkling stars.
About seven million light-years away in the constellation Virgo, we find the impressive galaxy UGC 8091. And with the holidays approaching, the Hubble Space Telescope has now taken a beautiful photo of this galaxy. It is not incomprehensible that the telescope focused its eyes on this system. Because all those countless points of light are reminiscent of a beautiful snow globe.
Photo
The beautiful photo can be seen below. The image is thanks to two advanced instruments that the Hubble telescope is equipped with: the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys. Using advanced filters on the scientific instruments, an impressive range of light wavelengths was captured. This allows scientists to study the millions of stars in this galaxy better than ever before.
Here we see a group of stars and galaxies against a dark background. The irregular galaxy UGC 8091 is central to the image, surrounded by a dense collection of stars. The stars show different colors, including blue and orange, with blue areas mainly in the center of the galaxy. Within the galaxy, striking circular regions colored pink/red can also be seen, indicating the presence of gas. Image: ESA/Hubble, NASA Y. Choi (NOIRLab), K. Gilbert (Space Telescope Science Institute), J. Dalcanton (Flatiron Institute and University of Washington)
Irregular galaxy
Unlike other galaxies with ordered stars, UGC 8091 is considered an irregular galaxy by astronomers. And it’s not hard to see why: the stars that make up this galaxy are more like bright Christmas string lights or the floating particles in a snow globe than a traditional galaxy. Some irregular galaxies have been disrupted by tumultuous internal events, while others have been formed by interactions with neighboring galaxies. This creates galaxies of varying sizes and shapes, including the scattered sparkle of stars that characterizes this particular galaxy.
One billion stars
More precisely, UGC 8091 is a so-called irregular dwarf galaxy. This means that it is home to approximately only one billion stars. That may seem like a lot, but for a galaxy it is modest: our own Milky Way, for example, has more than 100 billion stars, and other galaxies may contain even trillions of stars! Dwarf galaxies usually orbit larger galaxies. And because of their small mass, they are sensitive to disruption and absorption by their larger neighbors. This process leads to distorted small irregular galaxies, such as UGC 8091.
Similar properties
Dwarf galaxies are actually very interesting. This type of galaxy is thought to have similar properties to the very old and distant galaxies that astronomers observe in so-called ‘deep field images’. It is hoped that examining the composition of dwarf galaxies and their stars will help understand the evolutionary links between these ancient galaxies and more modern galaxies, such as ours.
Metallicity
It is easy to explain why scientists are interested in dwarf galaxies. Because such galaxies and old, distant galaxies have striking similarities. For example, dwarf galaxies have a low metal content or metallicity. Metallicity is a way of indicating how much of a star is made up of elements heavier than helium and hydrogen. These heavier elements are formed in the cores of stars. The first generation of stars in the universe had low metallicity, because there were no previous stars that could produce these heavier elements. And so by studying dwarf galaxies, researchers also hope to learn more about old and distant galaxies.
The newly released photo therefore not only has an aesthetic purpose, but is also of great scientific importance. It allows astronomers to carefully study the colorful stars of UGC 8091 and learn more about this galaxy. Using different filters, researchers can observe various features of the galaxy. The filtered images are then combined to create a full color image. And take a closer look. The vibrant, bright red spots represent the light from hydrogen molecules in new, hot stars that have just formed. The other bright spots are from older stars.
With the beautiful photo of UGC 8091, the Hubble telescope heralds the coming holidays in an impressive way. At the same time, this photo gives us more insight into irregular dwarf galaxies. Although they may look simple, these galaxies contain a surprising amount of information about our universe. Therefore, they are just as valuable as other objects in the night sky.
2023-12-23 12:02:32
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