Explanation: Why do some spiral galaxies have a ring around the center? Spiral galaxy NGC 1398 not only has a ring of pearly stars, gas and dust around its center, but a bar of stars and gas across its center, and spiral arms that appear like ribbons farther out. The featured image was taken with ESO's Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory in Chile and resolves this grand spiral in impressive detail. NGC 1398 lies about 65 million light years distant, meaning the light we see today left this galaxy when dinosaurs were disappearing from the Earth. The photogenic galaxy is visible with a small telescope toward the constellation of the Furnace (Fornax). The ring near the center is likely an expanding density wave of star formation, caused either by a gravitational encounter with another galaxy, or by the galaxy's own gravitational asymmetries.

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Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (USRA)
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.

Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami: spiral galaxy - spiral'naya galaktika Publikacii so slovami: spiral galaxy - spiral'naya galaktika
Sm. takzhe: NGC 1546 ot teleskopa im.Habbla Mess'e 66 krupnym planom NGC 4565: galaktika, vidimaya s rebra NGC 2403 v Zhirafe M100: galaktika s regulyarnym spiral'nym uzorom Licom k NGC 1232 Raskruchivaya M51 Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >>