These images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope capture three close-up views of the spiral galaxy NGC 300, a member of the Sculptor Group of galaxies near our Milky Way. NGC 300 resides 7 million light-years from Earth.
In the image at far left, Hubble resolves a dense swarm of stars, patches of dust, and a bright central star cluster. This cluster lies at the very nucleus of the galaxy. Similar clusters are thought to be related to the formation of supermassive black holes. The image at center shows a star-forming region a few thousand light-years farther from the galaxy's center. The yellow blobs are the glow from hot gas that has been heated by radiation from the nearest young, blue stars. The image at far right reveals more diffuse groupings of young, blue stars, farther away from the galaxy's center, along with faint shells of hot gas.
NGC 300 is part of a detailed survey called the ACS Nearby Galaxy Survey Treasury program (ANGST). In this census Hubble observed roughly 14 million stars in 69 galaxies. The survey explored a region called the "Local Volume," and the galaxy distances ranged from 6.5 million light-years to 13 million light-years from Earth. The Local Volume resides beyond the Local Group of galaxies, an even nearer collection of a few dozen galaxies within about 3 million light-years of our Milky Way Galaxy.
The natural-color images were constructed using observations taken in infrared, visible, and blue light. The observations were made in November 2006 with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys.
Credits
NASA, ESA, and J. Dalcanton and B. Williams (University of Washington)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NGC 300 |
| Object Description | Spiral Galaxy in the Local Volume |
| R.A. Position | 00h 54m 53.48s |
| Dec. Position | -37° 41' 3.8" |
| Constellation | Sculptor |
| Distance | 7 million light-years |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | HST Proposal: J. Dalcanton (University of Washington), and collaborators. |
| Instrument | HST>ACS/WFC |
| Exposure Dates | September 2006 |
| Filters | F475W (B), F606W (V), and F814W (I) |
| About The Image | |
| Color Info | These images are a composite of separate exposures made by the ACS instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope. Three filters were used to sample broad wavelength ranges. The color results from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: F475W (B) Green: F606W (V) Red: F814W (I) |
| 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. |
