This photo illustration shows Hubble measurements of the rotation of the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), the nearest visible galaxy to our Milky Way. The LMC appears in the Southern Hemisphere's night sky. In this photo illustration, the image contrast in a ground-based photo was enhanced to highlight the LMC's faint outer regions, which are not visible to the naked eye. To illustrate the LMC's large apparent size on the sky, an image of the full moon is shown at bottom right. A horizon has been added for perspective.
The arrows represent the highest-quality Hubble measurements of the motion of the LMC's stars to show how this galaxy rotates. Each arrow reveals the predicted motion over the next 7 million years. The motion of each star measured by Hubble over a few years' time is a million times smaller than the length of each arrow. The LMC completes a rotation every 250 million years.
Credits
Image: NASA, ESA, A. Feild and Z. Levay (STScI), Y. Beletsky (Las Campanas Observatory), and R. van der Marel (STScI);Science: NASA, ESA, R. van der Marel (STScI), and N. Kallivayalil (University of Virginia)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Large Magellanic Cloud |
| Object Description | Irregular Galaxy |
| R.A. Position | 05h 23m 34s.53 |
| Dec. Position | -69° 45' 22".07 |
| Constellation | Dorado |
| Distance | 170,000 light-years (52,000 parsecs) |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | The Hubble data are from proposals : C. Alcock (Harvard University), R. van der Marel (STScI), C. Nelson (University of California, Berkeley), T. Axelrod (University of Arizona), K. Cook (Eureka Scientific Inc.), A. Drake (Caltech), and M. Geha (Yale University); : C. Alcock (Harvard University), N. Kallivayalil (University of Virginia), R. van der Marel (STScI), M. Geha (Yale University), K. Cook (Eureka Scientific Inc.), A. Drake (Caltech), and T. Axelrod (University of Arizona); and : N. Kallivayalil (University of Virginia), R. van der Marel and J. Anderson (STScI), G. Besla (Columbia University), and C. Alcock (Harvard University). |
| Instrument | HST>WFC3/UVIS and HST>ACS/HRC |
| Exposure Dates | 2002 - 2010 |
| Filters | F606W (V) and 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. |
