April 30, 2025
Trending News

Hubble images lenticular galaxy NGC 6684

  • August 11, 2023
  • 0

Lenticular galaxy NGC 6684 covers this image taken by NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope in faint light. Captured by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, this galaxy is located about

Hubble images lenticular galaxy NGC 6684

Lenticular galaxy NGC 6684 covers this image taken by NASA/ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope in faint light. Captured by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys, this galaxy is located about 44 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pavo. Pavo is the Latin name for the peacock, a constellation in the southern sky and one of the four constellations known collectively as the Southern Birds.

Lenticular galaxies like NGC 6684 (meaning lenticular) have a large disk, but galaxies like the Andromeda Galaxy lack the prominent spiral arms. This leaves them somewhere between elliptical and spiral galaxies, giving these galaxies a diffuse, ghostly appearance. NGC 6684 also lacks the dark dust lanes that penetrate other galaxies, adding to its spectral appearance.

The data in this image was obtained during a census of the near universe called Every Known Nearby Galaxy, which aims to observe all galaxies within a radius of 10 megaparsecs (32.6 million light-years) that have not yet been visited by the telescope. Before this program began, Hubble had observed about 75% of these nearby galaxies. Completing this census will reveal a picture of stars forming a wide variety of galaxies in various environments.

Source: Port Altele

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *