This NASA Hubble Space Telescope Wide Field/Planetary Camera image of the center of the giant elliptical galaxy NGC 1275, reveals about 50 massive and compact globular clusters. This color picture is a composite of red and green images. Though this is an approximation of a "true color" view, the colors are intensified beyond what one would expect to see with the naked eye. The clusters appear as blue dots. The white dot is the bright and compact core of the galaxy which is partially encircled by large dark filaments of nebulosity. This image is being presented on Thursday, January 16th at the 179th meeting of the American Astronomical Society in Atlanta, Georgia.
Globular clusters typically contain 100,000 to 10 million stars packed in a region 100 light years in diameter. Most globular clusters are made up of very old stars. Surprisingly, those found in NGC 1275 are young. They may have formed from cataclysmic event in the history of the NGC 1275, such as a merger or collision of two galaxies.
Credits
J. Holtzman/NASA| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NGC 1275 |
| R.A. Position | 03h 19m 48.16s |
| Dec. Position | 41° 30' 42.1" |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Investigators: Jon Holtzman (UCSC)1 Sandra M. Faber (UCSC), Edward Shaya (U. Maryland)) Tad R. Lauer (NOAO), Edward Groth (IAS, Princeton), Deidre Hunter (1owell Obs.) and the Wide Field Planetary Camera Instrument Team |
| 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. |
