The starburst galaxy NGC 253

NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies in the sky, and also one of the dustiest. The whole galaxy is shown here as observed with the WFI instrument, while the insert shows a close-up of the central parts as observed with the NACO instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope and the ACS on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This unique set of observations has allowed a team of astronomers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Spain) to study the galaxy in great detail, uncovering many young, massive and dusty stellar nurseries. They also found that the centre of this galaxy appears to harbour a twin of our own Milky Way's supermassive black hole.

Crédit:

ESO

À propos de l'image

Identification:eso0902a
Type:Observation
Date de publication:19 janvier 2009
Communiqués de presse en rapport:eso0902
Taille:8285 x 7510 px

À propos de l'objet

Nom:NGC 253
Type:Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Distance:10 million années lumière
Constellation:Sculptor
Catégorie:Galaxies

Image Formats

Grand JPEG
8,6 Mio
JPEG taille écran
116,6 Kio

Zoomable


Fonds d'écran

1024x768
123,5 Kio
1280x1024
181,3 Kio
1600x1200
250,5 Kio
1920x1200
297,5 Kio
2048x1536
382,6 Kio

Coordinates

Position (RA):0 47 33.65
Position (Dec):-25° 17' 5.94"
Field of view:32.87 x 29.79 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 1.6° right of vertical

Couleurs & filtres

DomaineLongueur d'ondeTélescope
Infrarouge
Near-IR
814 nmHubble Space Telescope
ACS
Visible
Oiii
MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
WFI
Visible
V
MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
WFI
Infrarouge
J
Very Large Telescope
NACO
Visible
R
MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
WFI
Visible
H-alpha
MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
WFI

Notes: WFI data is for the main picture of NGC 253, all other observation data refers to the close-up image.