Astronomers using the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured a spectacularly detailed image of part of the spiral galaxy NGC 4603.
This Hubble image shows NGC 4603, a spiral galaxy about 107 million light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Maund.
NGC 4603 is located about 107 million light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus.
This galaxy was discovered on June 8, 1834 by the English astronomer John Herschel.
Also known as ESO 322-52, IRAS 12382-4042 and LEDA 42510, it has a diameter of 110,000 light years.
NGC 4603 is a member of the Centaurus cluster of galaxies, a group of more than 100 galaxies.
The galaxy is classified as SA (s) c, which means that it is a pure spiral galaxy with relatively loosely wrapped arms.
“Bright bands of blue young stars form the arms of NGC 4603, twisting lazily out from its luminous core,” Hubble astronomers said.
“The intricate reddish-brown filaments that run through the spiral arms are called dust lanes, and consist of dense dust clouds that obscure the galaxy’s diffuse starlight.”
“NGC 4603 is a well-known topic for Hubble,” they added.
“In the last years of the 20th century, the Milky Way was being watched closely and closely for signs of a peculiar class of stars known as Cepheid variables.”
“These stars have a brightness that is closely related to their darkening and lightening period, allowing astronomers to accurately measure how far they are from Earth.”
“Distance measurements with Cepheid variables are essential for measuring the furthest distances in the Universe, and were one of the factors used by Georges Lemaître and Edwin Hubble to show that the Universe is expanding.”