Zooming in on Star Formation
Discovered in the year 1836 by John Herschel, NGC 6902 is a beautiful spiral galaxy located more than 130 million light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius, the Archer. This image was taken with MUSE, the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer instrument attached to one of the four 8.2-metre telescopes that make up the VLT, and shows the galaxy from a unique perspective. A zoom in towards the galaxy’s centre, the image shows a nuclear ring where the orange glow of intense star formation is visible.
Inside this ring lies a faint and small bar of stars. Researchers found that stars within it are distributed differently depending on their age, with younger stars aligned along the bar and older stars more dispersed. These locations of the young and old stars within the central bar of NGC 6902 confirm predictions made years earlier from simulations and models. This is the first time these predictions of galactic structure were confirmed with observations thanks to the incredible spatial resolution of the MUSE instrument.
Telif:ESO/TIMER survey
Görüntü Hakkında
Kimlik: | potw2106a |
Tür: | Gözlem |
Yayın tarihi: | 08 Şubat 2021 06:00 |
Boyut: | 317 x 326 px |
Nesne Hakkında
Adı: | NGC 6902 |
Tür: | Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral |
Uzaklık: | 130 milyon ışık yılı |
Constellation: | Sagittarius |
Kategori: | Galaxies |
Duvarkağıtları
Koordinatlar
Position (RA): | 20 24 28.17 |
Position (Dec): | -43° 39' 13.25" |
Field of view: | 1.06 x 1.09 arcminutes |
Yönelim: | Kuzey yönü 0.1° sağ derece kadar dik konumdan sapma göstermektedir |
Renkler & Filtreler
Bant | Dalgaboyu | Teleskop |
---|---|---|
Optik B | 438 nm | Very Large Telescope MUSE |
Optik g | 475 nm | Very Large Telescope MUSE |
Optik r | 625 nm | Very Large Telescope MUSE |
Optik H-alpha | 656 nm | Very Large Telescope MUSE |
Optik N II | 658 nm | Very Large Telescope MUSE |