Credit & Copyright: European Southern Observatory
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.
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 |
Yanvar' Fevral' Mart Aprel' Mai Iyun' Iyul' Avgust Sentyabr' Oktyabr' Noyabr' Dekabr' |
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
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:
Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >> | |
