Our Sun and solar system are embedded in a broad pancake of stars deep within the disk of the Milky Way galaxy. Even from a distance, it is impossible to see our galaxy's large-scale features other than the disk.
The next best thing is to look farther out into the universe at galaxies that are similar in shape and structure to our home galaxy. Other spiral galaxies like NGC 3949, pictured in the Hubble image, fit the bill. Like our Milky Way, this galaxy has a blue disk of young stars peppered with bright pink star-birth regions. In contrast to the blue disk, the bright central bulge is made up of mostly older, redder stars.
NGC 3949 lies about 50 million light-years from Earth. It is a member of a loose cluster of some six or seven dozens of galaxies located in the direction of the Big Dipper, in the constellation Ursa Major (the Great Bear). It is one of the larger galaxies of this cluster.
This image was created from Hubble data taken with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in October 2001. Separate exposures through blue, visible, and near-infrared filters have been combined to make the natural color picture. This image was produced by the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI).
Credits
NASA, ESA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA);Acknowledgment: S. Smartt (The Queen's University of Belfast)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NGC 3949 |
| Object Description | Spiral Galaxy |
| R.A. Position | 11h 53m 41.37s |
| Dec. Position | 47° 51' 31.59" |
| Constellation | Ursa Major |
| Distance | Approximately 50 million light-years (15 Megaparsecs) |
| Dimensions | This image is roughly 2 arcminutes wide (30,000 light-years or 9000 parsecs). |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | This image was created from HST data from proposal : S. Smartt (The Queen's University of Belfast). J. Danziger (INAF, Osservatorio Astronomico di Trieste), G. Gilmore, S. Hodgekin, C. Tout, and N. Trentham (University of Cambridge). |
| Instrument | HST>WFPC2 |
| Exposure Dates | October 1, 2001, Exposure Time: 16 minutes |
| Filters | F450W (B), F606W (V), F814W (I) |
| About The Image | |
| Compass Image |  |
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object. |
| Object Description | The type of astronomical object. |
| R.A. Position | Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Dec. Position | Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position. |
| Constellation | One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears. |
| Distance | The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| Instrument | The science instrument used to produce the data. |
| Exposure Dates | The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time. |
| Filters | The camera filters that were used in the science observations. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |
