Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) has captured a beautiful image of the central part of barred spiral galaxy NGC 2217.
This Hubble image shows the central region of NGC 2217, a barred spiral galaxy about 83 million light-years away in the constellation Canis Major. This image is composed of observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in the optical part of the spectrum. It was colored with data from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS). Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Dalcanton / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.
NGC 2217 is located about 83 million light-years away in the constellation Canis Major.
Also known as LEDA 18883, AM 0619-271 and ESO 489-42, this galaxy was discovered on January 20, 1835 by the English astronomer John Herschel.
NGC 2217 is the centerpiece of a concentration of galaxies called the NGC 2217 group.
“This barred spiral galaxy is about the size of our Milky Way at a diameter of 100,000 light years,” Hubble astronomers say.
“Many stars are concentrated in the central region, forming the luminous beam, surrounded by a series of tightly wound spiral arms.”
“The central bar in these types of galaxies plays an important role in their evolution and helps direct gas from the disc to the center of the galaxy,” the researchers explained.
“The transported gas and dust are then formed into new stars or carried to the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy.”
“Weighing in at a few hundred to more than a billion times the mass of our Sun, supermassive black holes are present in almost all major galaxies.”