This visual light image of a newly discovered galaxy called "Dwingeloo 1," was taken with the Isaac Newton Telescope on La Palma in the Canary Islands (Administered by the Royal Greenwich Observatory, United Kingdom). Though only ten million light-years away (or five times the distance of the Andromeda galaxy - closest city of stars to our Milky Way Galaxy), this newly discovered collection of more than 100 billion stars has gone undetected previously because it is hidden from view behind our Milky Way galaxy. It probably belongs to a nearby group of galaxies that include two named Maffei 1 and 2. The galaxy appears as a distinctive barred-spiral-shaped object embedded in a dense starfield of hundreds of foreground stars comprising our own Milky Way galaxy. Because the galaxy is only faintly visible through obscuring dust and gas in the Milky Way, it is possible that astronomers are seeing only the central part of a much larger galaxy. The new galaxy was initially detected in radio light that penetrates this obscuring dust, and the ground-based telescopes were used to directly observe the galaxy. This color picture is a combination of three images taken through several color filters. The picture covers an area of the sky 1/6 the diameter of the full Moon (about 5 arc-minutes across).
Credits
Credit: Dwingeloo Obscured Galaxy Survey team, S. Hughes, & S. Maddox/Isaac Newton telescope (RGO)| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | Dwingeloo 1 |
| 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. |
