The Hubble Space Telescope captured an image of the most stunning of spiral galaxies, which is called A Grand Design Spiral and is given that designation because of its clear, prominent arms and highly organized spiral structure. The ideal spiral galaxy is located 53 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Ursa Major and can be seen from the planet.
The data from the Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys were used to create the image. The Advanced Camera for Surveys uses a Hubble camera to capture data in the visible light range, which is the same range seen by the human eye. In 2002 it was installed on Hubble. The older Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 was upgraded to the Wide Field Camera 3 in 2009. The Wide Field Camera 3 is used to detect visible light.
This image shows both visible light and IR data. The visible light wavelength is represented by the blue shades, while the IR data is represented by the orange. It is helpful to look through clouds of dust that are opaque in visible light, and it also maps out the distribution of heat as warm material gives off IR light.
Hubble can see regions of dust and regions where new stars are being born by looking at the grand spiral arms.
Star formation in spirals is similar to a traffic jam. Slower moving matter in the spiral's disk creates a roadblock, concentrating star-forming gas and dust along the inner part of their spiral arms. This traffic jam of matter can get so dense that it collapses, creating new stars.
Recommended video
All Rights Reserved © 2024
