Rubin s Galaxy
Credit & Copyright: NASA,
ESA,
B. Holwerda (University of Louisville)
Explanation:
In
this Hubble Space Telescope image
the bright, spiky stars
lie in the foreground toward the heroic northern constellation
Perseus and well within our own Milky Way galaxy.
In sharp focus beyond is
UGC
2885,
a giant spiral galaxy about 232 million light-years distant.
Some 800,000 light-years across compared to the Milky Way's
diameter of 100,000 light-years or so, it has around 1 trillion stars.
That's about 10 times as many stars as the Milky Way.
Part
of an investigation
to understand how galaxies can grow to such enormous sizes,
UGC 2885 was also part of
An
Interesting Voyage
and astronomer Vera Rubin's
pioneering study of the rotation of spiral galaxies.
Her work was the first to convincingly demonstrate
the dominating presence of
dark matter in our
universe.
Authors & editors:
Robert Nemiroff
(MTU) &
Jerry Bonnell
(USRA)
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings,
and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris.
Specific
rights apply.
A service of:
LHEA at
NASA /
GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
