A small, irregularly shaped galaxy, located in the constellation Pictor.
REPUBLIKA.CO.ID, JAKARTA — The Hubble Space Telescope looks at star explosion strange cosmic. In a new photo taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, the dwarf galaxy NGC 1705 shines in a cloud of bright light and red clouds.
A small, irregularly shaped galaxy located in the constellation Pictor about 17 million light-years from Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) described the object as “cosmic eccentric”. Reported from Space, Tuesday (1/2/2022), NGC 1705 went through a “star burst” phase, which means it experienced an unusually high rate of star formation.
Irregular dwarf galaxies like these usually have fewer elements than larger galaxies and are mostly hydrogen and helium. Because of this, they are considered to be similar to the earliest galaxies in the universe.
This image was taken using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 to observe a specific wavelength of light known as H-alpha. By looking at these wavelengths, astronomers hope to detect areas where young, energetic stars illuminate the gas cloud around them with ultraviolet light.
Hubble last looked at NGC 1705 in 1999 when astronomers used a telescope camera (at the time, the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2) to observe the galactic center. These new observations, using much newer technology at Hubble, could provide more detail and a fuller view of the galaxy.
Previously, Hubble had captured stunning images of outer space. The image is from the distant galaxy NGC 3381. Located 115 million light-years away, this elegant shape is a classic spiral galaxy, located in the constellation Vela.
The constellation Vela has an interesting and nautical-related history, as the Hubble scientists explain in a NASA statement.
“Vela was originally part of a much larger constellation, known as Argo Navis after the fabled ship Argo from Greek mythology. The Argo Navis is divided into three separate sections called Carina, Puppis, and Vela—each named after a section of the Argo. As befits a galaxy in an ocean-inspired constellation, the outer edge of NGC 3318 almost resembles the sails of a ship blowing in a light breeze,” NASA said in a statement.
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