Astronomy: Admire the Latest Hubble Masterpiece

This updated guide examines Astronomy: Admire the Latest Hubble Masterpiece and organizes the essential facts, background, and practical takeaways in clear American English.

The Hubble Space Telescope has continued to stir astronomers by capturing a magical masterpiece of the spiral galaxy NGC 2008, 425 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pictor (The Painter's Easel)..

A common feature of all spiral galaxies is the appearance of twisted 'arms' with an almost identical structure and size extending from the center of the galaxy. In this case, because the NGC 2008 galaxy is in a slightly inclined position compared to the view from Earth, so the spiral arms at the bottom of the galaxy that you see in the image will be near the Earth. than the upper arms. These arms are made up of scattered bright spots that are the star-forming region. This is where gas clouds are ionized by gravity and form the basis of new stars. The ionized gas reacts to Hubble's infrared light due to the heat generated by the stars inside it, creating the cold, bright spots we see on the image.

There are 3 different types of spiral galaxies: Sa, Sb and Sc. Sa are galaxies with arms close to a large central nucleus, while Sc galaxies have long, thin arms, spread out from a smaller nucleus. Galaxy Sb is a combination of Sa and Sc.

NGC 2008 is a Sc galaxy, with a smaller central core and clearly visible ways of changing helices. The center of the galaxy is composed of older, fainter stars, and in most cases they surround a supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy.

The spiral galaxy is one of the most common galaxies in the universe, with about 70% of the total number of galaxies observed by humans in the form of spirals. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is also a spiral galaxy, but it possesses a feature different from that of NGC 2008: In the center of the galaxy there is a mass of dust and gas in the new stars. forming and from which the arms radiate. About 2/3 of spiral galaxies possess this feature.

Some other famous spiral galaxies include the Andromeda galaxy, Pinwheel galaxy and Triangulum galaxy.