This artist's illustration offers a "window seat" view of comet-like clouds of gas racing through the heart of the Cartwheel galaxy at 700,000 mph. The large orange and yellow pancake-like object is the galaxy's core, and the white streaks along its edges are the comet-like objects. The objects probably were spawned by a collision between high-speed and slow-moving material. The "heads" are a few hundred light-years across; the tails are several thousand light-years long. The string of bright lights in the background is the galaxy's outer ring of young stars. The galaxy is 500 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor.
Credits
Credit: J. Gitlin (Space Telescope Science Institute), and NASA| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Cartwheel Galaxy |
| R.A. Position | 00h 37m 41.09s |
| Dec. Position | -33° 42' 59.0" |
| 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 |
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| 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. |
