Tightly wound, almost concentric, arms of dark dust encircle the bright nucleus of galaxy NGC 2787 in this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image created by the Hubble Heritage Team.
In astronomer Edwin Hubble's galaxy classification scheme, NGC 2787 is classified as an SB0, a barred lenticular galaxy. These lens-shaped galaxies show little or no evidence of the grand spiral arms that occur in their more photogenic cousins, though NGC 2787 does sport a faint bar, not apparent in this image.
NGC 2787's seemingly bland qualities are, however, just what the doctor ordered for astronomer Marcella Carollo's investigation. Dr. Carollo (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich) and team used Hubble to look at the center of these galaxies for clues about the process of galaxy formation including the role of galaxy collisions and central black holes.
Also visible in the Heritage image are about a dozen globular clusters hovering around NGC 2787. What appear to be stars are, in fact, gravitationally bound families of 100,000's of ancient stars orbiting the center of NGC 2787.
NGC 2787 lies roughly 24 million light-years (7.4 megaparsecs) from Earth in the constellation Ursa Major. Data was collected with the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 in January 1999. This Heritage image was made by combining light from blue, green and infrared filters from the 1999 dataset.
Credits
NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA);Acknowledgment: M. Carollo (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich)
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NGC 2787 |
| Object Description | Galaxy with Spiral Arm Structure |
| R.A. Position | 09h 19m 18.9s |
| Dec. Position | 69° 12' 11.9" |
| Constellation | Ursa Major |
| Distance | About 24 million light-years (7.4 megaparsecs) |
| Dimensions | The image is roughly 38 arcseconds (4400 light-years or 1300 parsecs) across. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Principal Astronomers: M. Carollo (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich) |
| Instrument | HST>WFPC2 |
| Exposure Dates | January 29, 1999, Exposure Time: 1.2 hours |
| Filters | F450W (Wide B), F555W (V), F814W (I) |
| About The Image | |
| Compass Image |  |
| 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. |
