NASA IOTD: 'Island Universe' in the Coma Cluster

[bystander]

'Island Universe' in the Coma Cluster
NASA | Image of the Day | 10 Aug 2010

NGC 4911: 'Island Universe' in the Coma Cluster

Click to view full size image

A long-exposure Hubble Space Telescope image shows a majestic face-on spiral galaxy located deep within the Coma Cluster of galaxies, which lies 320 million light- years away in the northern constellation Coma Berenices. The galaxy, known as NGC 4911, contains rich lanes of dust and gas near its center. These are silhouetted against glowing newborn star clusters and iridescent pink clouds of hydrogen, the existence of which indicates ongoing star formation. Hubble has also captured the outer spiral arms of NGC 4911, along with thousands of other galaxies of varying sizes. The high resolution of Hubble's cameras, paired with considerably long exposures, made it possible to observe these faint details.

This natural-color Hubble image, which combines data obtained in 2006, 2007, and 2009 from the Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys, required 28 hours of exposure time.

Credit: NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

HubbleSite.org | STScI-2010-24 | 10 Aug 2010 | Zoomable Image

[owlice]

WOW. There are at least 100 galaxies in that image, in addition to the pink-yellow-blue-and-white beauty that is the main subject.

What a stunning image!

[BMAONE23]

Looking at the image, the central galaxy wouldn't appear nearly as large in a less deep image. You would only see the central portion with the dust lanes and bright new star forming regions. All the VAST gossamer spiral arm structure that extends to 3 times the radius of the central bright portion greatly increases the size of the galaxy over a less deep image of the bright star forming core.