This Hubble Space Telescope view of galaxy NGC 7457, was taken on August 17, 1990 with the Wide Field/Planetary Camera. The picture on the left with high contrast shows the central portion of the galaxy. Predictably, the density of the starry population smoothly increases toward the galactic center.
The picture on the right is of the same galaxy, but the contrast has been adjusted to reveal a surprisingly high concentration of stars pinpointed exactly at the galaxy's core. The nucleus is so compact it is even beyond HST's 0.1 arcsecond resolution. Stars are crammed together at least 30,000 times more densely than they are in our own stellar neighborhood. It is not yet known how this tight core is gravitationally held together.
Forty million light-years away, NGC 7457 is one of the first "normal" galaxies that HST has observed. This unexpected finding suggests that the cores of many galaxies may be far more densely packed with stars than earlier thought.
Credits
Credit: NASA, ESA, and STScI| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NGC 7457 |
| R.A. Position | 23h 1m 0.04s |
| Dec. Position | 30° 8' 43.4" |
| 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. |
