A group of astronomers responsible for the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a striking new photograph of the dwarf galaxy NGC 1705. It is located approximately 18.7 million light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation of Pictor and was discovered on December 5, 1834 by the English astronomer John Herschel, son of the well-known astronomer William Herschel, discoverer of the planet Uranus and numerous celestial objects. His son, John, popularized the use of the Julian date in astronomy and invented cyanotype.
Also known as ESO 158-13, IRAS 04531-5326, and LEDA 16282 , this galaxy has a super star cluster, called NGC1750-1, located near its galactic center.
NASA highlighted NGC 1705, this small, irregularly shaped dwarf galaxy whose image looks like an amorphous patch of red clouds congregating around a bright center.
A weirdo among galaxies
The galaxy is a member of the Golden Group , a collection of more than 10 spiral and elliptical galaxies. Contrary to our galaxy, the Milky Way, which sports very well-organized and delimited spiral arms and a very defined center, NGC 1705 is… a bit unusual as a galaxy.
“NGC 1705 is a cosmic weirdo ,” the Hubble astronomers said. ” It is small, irregular in shape, and has recently undergone a series of star formation known as starbursts. Despite these eccentricities, NGC 1705 and other dwarf irregular galaxies like it can provide valuable insights into the overall evolution of galaxies,” they continue. The experts.
“Dwarf irregular galaxies tend to contain few elements other than hydrogen or helium and are believed to be similar to the first galaxies that populated the universe ,” the European Space Agency clarifies in a statement shared by NASA.
The image we are seeing is made up of several observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) in the ultraviolet, near-infrared and optical parts of the spectrum and up to seven filters were used to highlight the different wavelengths, hence each color we see in the image is associated with an individual filter.
“By observing a specific wavelength of light known as H-alpha with Hubble’s WFC3 instrument, our goal was to discover thousands of emission nebulae, regions created when hot young stars bathe surrounding gas clouds in light. ultraviolet, which makes them shine”, conclude those responsible for Hubble.
Reference: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Chandar.
