Astronomers using the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced a spectacularly detailed image of part of the NGC 4603 spiral galaxy.
This Hubble image shows NGC 4603, a spiral galaxy about 107 million light-years away in the constellation Centaurus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Maund.
NGC 4603 is located about 107 million light-years away in the constellation Centaurus.
This galaxy was discovered on June 8, 1834 by English astronomer John Herschel.
Otherwise known as ESO 322-52, IRAS 12382-4042 and LEDA 42510, it has a diameter of 110,000 light years.
NGC 4603 is a member of the Centaurus galaxy group, a group of over 100 galaxies.
The galaxy is classified as SA (s) c, which means that it is a pure spiral galaxy with relatively weakly wrapped arms.
“The bright bands of young blue stars make up the arms of NGC 4603, which lazily wind outward from the bright core,” said Hubble astronomers.
“The intricate red-brown filaments that pass through the spiral arms are known as dust bands and consist of dense clouds of dust that hide the diffused light of the stars in the galaxy.”
“NGC 4603 is a familiar topic for Hubble,” they added.
“In the last years of the twentieth century, the galaxy was carefully and closely followed to see the signs of a special class of stars known as Cepheid variables.”
“These stars have a brightness closely related to the period in which they darken and light up, allowing astronomers to accurately measure how far they are from Earth.”
“Distance measurements from Cepheid variables are essential for measuring the farthest distances in the Universe and were one of the factors used by Georges Lemaître and Edwin Hubble to show that the Universe is expanding.”