Incredible sight: the Hubble Space Telescope took pictures of a spiral galaxy
Kyiv • UNN
The Hubble Telescope has taken stunning images of the spiral galaxy NGC 4941 at a distance of 67 million light-years in the constellation Virgo. Hubble instruments highlight individual star clusters and gas clouds.
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has managed to take stunning images of the spiral galaxy NGC 4941, which is located approximately 67 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. UNN writes about this with reference to ESA Hubble.
Details
The image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope shows the picturesque spiral galaxy NGC 4941, which is located approximately 67 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. Since this galaxy is located nearby, if measured in terms of space, Hubble's precise instruments are able to highlight interesting details, such as individual star clusters and filamentous clouds of gas and dust.
The data used to create this image were collected as part of an observation program that explores star formation and the star feedback cycle in nearby galaxies. When stars form in dense, cold clumps of gas, they begin to affect their surroundings. Stars heat and disturb the gas clouds in which they are born with wind, starlight, and - eventually, for massive stars - a supernova explosion. These processes are collectively called stellar feedback. They affect the rate at which a galaxy can form new stars.
As it turned out, stars are not the only entities that provide feedback in NGC 4941. At the center of this galaxy lies an active galactic nucleus: a supermassive black hole that absorbs gas. When a black hole accumulates gas, it turns into an overheated disk that glows brightly at wavelengths throughout the electromagnetic spectrum.
Like stars - but on a much larger scale - active galactic nuclei shape their surroundings with winds, radiation, and powerful jets, changing not only star formation, but also the evolution of the galaxy as a whole.
Addition
The Webb Telescope was able to capture Neptune's auroras in stunning infrared detail for the first time. The activity of the auroras is located in the middle latitudes of the planet, not at the poles.
The combination of observations from the Gaia Space Telescope and the ground-based Gravity instrument allowed scientists to photograph the satellites of eight bright stars that had not been detected before.
