Hubble captures mesmerising galactic bar 43 million lightyears awayThe Hubble Space Telescope has captured a barred spiral galaxy in the Virgo cluster.
New Delhi: The Hubble Space Telescope has turned its sensitive gaze towards a broad and sweeping spiral galaxy with the designation of NGC 4731.
The galaxy is located at a distance of 43 million lightyears, and is located within the Virgo cluster in the constellation of the same name.
Barred spiral galaxies outnumber both elliptical and spiral galaxies put together, and make up 60 per cent of all known galaxies.
Spiral galaxies seem to form these central bars as they mature, but at times the bars can grow unstable and disappear.
Hubble captures mesmerising galactic bar 43 million lightyears away
The Hubble Space Telescope has captured a barred spiral galaxy in the Virgo cluster. The image also reveals clouds of gas, dark dust lanes, and regions of star formation. The central bar is the most prominent feature, and plays a role in transporting material within a galaxy.
Hubble’s capture of NGC 4731. (Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker).
New Delhi: The Hubble Space Telescope has turned its sensitive gaze towards a broad and sweeping spiral galaxy with the designation of NGC 4731. The galaxy is located at a distance of 43 million lightyears, and is located within the Virgo cluster in the constellation of the same name. Hubble has used six different filters to capture the billowing clouds of gas, the dark bands of dust, and pink stellar nurseries where new stars are being born.
What are bars in galaxies for?
The most prominent feature is the long, glowing bar. Barred spiral galaxies outnumber both elliptical and spiral galaxies put together, and make up 60 per cent of all known galaxies. These bars are believed to funnel gas and dust towards the central black hole of the galaxy. Spiral galaxies seem to form these central bars as they mature, but at times the bars can grow unstable and disappear.
The bars are formed by an alignment of the orbits of stars within a galaxy, that also result in the spiral arms. These bars also fuel star formation. The image was captured as part of a campaign to examine the flow of matter within galaxies. The spiral arms of the galaxy extend well beyond this close-up view by Hubble. The elongated arms of the galaxy are believed to be a result of gravitational interactions with other galaxies in the Virgo cluster.
Hubble’s Signature
A few of the foreground stars bear the cross-shaped diffraction spikes that are a characteristic feature of Hubble. These diffraction spikes appear only over the brightest and most concentrated sources of light. The diffraction spikes are caused by light interacting with the internal support structure of the telescope. As with most Hubble images, the target galaxy is sitting in a field of even more distant galaxies of all shapes and sizes.
