The starburst galaxy NGC 253

NGC 253 is one of the brightest spiral galaxies in the sky, and also one of the dustiest. The whole galaxy is shown here as observed with the WFI instrument, while the insert shows a close-up of the central parts as observed with the NACO instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope and the ACS on the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This unique set of observations has allowed a team of astronomers from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias (Spain) to study the galaxy in great detail, uncovering many young, massive and dusty stellar nurseries. They also found that the centre of this galaxy appears to harbour a twin of our own Milky Way's supermassive black hole.

Bildnachweis:

ESO

Über das Bild

ID:eso0902a
Typ:Beobachtung
Veröffentlichungsdatum:19. Januar 2009
Dazugehörige Veröffentlichungen:eso0902
Größe:8285 x 7510 px

Über das Objekt

Name:NGC 253
Typ:Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Entfernung:10 Million Lichtjahre
Constellation:Sculptor
Kategorie:Galaxies

Bildformate

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8,6 MB

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Koordinaten

Position (RA):0 47 33.65
Position (Dec):-25° 17' 5.94"
Field of view:32.87 x 29.79 arcminutes
Orientierung:Die Nordrichtung liegt 1.6° rechts zur Vertikale

Farben & Filter

SpektralbereichWellenlängeTeleskop
Infrarot
Near-IR
814 nmHubble Space Telescope
ACS
Optisch
Oiii
MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
WFI
Optisch
V
MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
WFI
Infrarot
J
Very Large Telescope
NACO
Optisch
R
MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
WFI
Optisch
H-alpha
MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope
WFI

Endnoten: WFI data is for the main picture of NGC 253, all other observation data refers to the close-up image.