HEIC: Tangled Threads Weave through Cosmic Oddity (NGC 4696)

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HEIC: Tangled Threads Weave through Cosmic Oddity (NGC 4696)

Post by bystander » Thu Dec 01, 2016 4:40 pm

Tangled Threads Weave through Cosmic Oddity
ESA Hubble Photo Release | 2016 Dec 01
[img3="Dusty Filaments in NGC 4696 - Credits: NASA, ESA/Hubble, A. Fabian"]https://cdn.spacetelescope.org/archives ... c1621a.jpg[/img3][hr][/hr]
New observations from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have revealed the intricate structure of the galaxy NGC 4696 in greater detail than ever before. The elliptical galaxy is a beautiful cosmic oddity with a bright core wrapped in system of dark, swirling, thread-like filaments.

NGC 4696 is a member of the Centaurus galaxy cluster, a swarm of hundreds of galaxies all sitting together, bound together by gravity, about 150 million light-years from Earth and located in the constellation of Centaurus.

Despite the cluster’s size, NGC 4696 still manages to stand out from its companions — it is the cluster’s brightest member, known for obvious reasons as the Brightest Cluster Galaxy . This puts it in the same category as some of the biggest and brightest galaxies known in the Universe.

Even if NGC 4696 keeps impressive company, it has a further distinction: the galaxy’s unique structure. Previous observations have revealed curling filaments that stretch out from its main body and carve out a cosmic question mark in the sky (heic1013), the dark tendrils encircling a brightly glowing centre. ...
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