VISTA’s infrared view of the Sculptor Galaxy (NGC 253)

NGC 253 is one of the closest galaxies to our own. It is a bright spiral that lies about 13 million light-years from Earth in the southern constellation of Sculptor and is noted for being a starburst galaxy with very vigorous star formation and very dusty spiral arms. In the infrared, the rich dust clouds in the galaxy’s spiral arms become nearly transparent and a whole host of cool red stars that are otherwise invisible can be seen. The VISTA infrared images were taken through Y, Z, J, Ksand narrowband filters. The field of view is about 38 by 25 arcminutes.

Herkunftsnachweis:

ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA. Acknowledgment: Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

Über das Bild

ID:eso1025a
Typ:Beobachtung
Veröffentlichungsdatum:16. Juni 2010 12:00
Dazugehörige Veröffentlichungen:eso1025
Größe:6761 x 4501 px

Über das Objekt

Name:NGC 253
Typ:Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Entfernung:13 Million Lichtjahre
Constellation:Sculptor
Kategorie:Galaxies

Bildformate

Großes JPEG
6,1 MB

Skalierbar


Bildschirm-Hintergrundbilder

1024x768
166,0 KB
1280x1024
278,3 KB
1600x1200
405,1 KB
1920x1200
485,3 KB
2048x1536
675,7 KB

Koordinaten

Position (RA):0 47 30.12
Position (Dec):-25° 17' 22.08"
Field of view:38.44 x 25.59 arcminutes
Orientierung:Die Nordrichtung liegt 43.2° links zur Vertikale