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Credit: Ground-based image: Allan Sandage
(Carnegie Observatories),
John Bedke (CSC, STScI)
WFPC2 image:John Trauger (JPL), NASA
NICMOS image: C. Marcella Carollo (JHU, Columbia U.), NASA, ESA
Explanation:
NGC 1365
is a giant
barred spiral galaxy about 200,000 light-years
in diameter and 60 million light-years distant in the southern
constellation Fornax.
These
three recently released images offer views of
this majestic
island universe in visible and infrared light.
In the middle is an optical ground-based image showing NGC 1365's
dramatic spiral arms trailing away from its central
galactic bar.
Superposed colored rectangles define the corresponding
fields of the inset images.
At upper left, a Hubble Space Telescope
near visible light image
shows young blue star clusters and dark dust lanes
located near the center of
NGC 1365.
The bright yellow nucleus likely houses a
massive black hole.
At lower right, the
Hubble infrared view of the galaxy's
center also shows young star clusters as bright blue spots
but additionally reveals infrared-bright spots corresponding
to newborn clusters
still hidden from optical view by dust clouds.
Astronomers believe the gravity field of NGC 1365's bar plays
a crucial role in the galaxy's evolution,
funneling gas and dust into the central
star-forming maelstrom
and ultimately feeding material into its massive
black hole.
WFPC2 image:John Trauger (JPL), NASA
NICMOS image: C. Marcella Carollo (JHU, Columbia U.), NASA, ESA
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A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: black hole - barred spiral galaxy - star formation - spiral galaxy
Publications with words: black hole - barred spiral galaxy - star formation - spiral galaxy
See also: