The Hubble House Telescope has captured an extremely detailed photograph of a spiral galaxy that’s formed like a watch. The photograph was made thanks to 2 of Hubble’s devices: the Huge Area Digicam 3 (WFC3) and the Superior Digicam for Surveys (ACS).
This detailed photograph exhibits the center of NGC 1097, what NASA describes as a barred spiral galaxy that sits about 48 million light-years from Earth within the constellation Fornax. The photograph reveals the intricacy of its “net of stars and mud” on the middle of NGC 1097’s middle. The purple hue are lengthy tendrils of mud extending outward.
A Photograph Made Because of Two Devices
The photograph was made thanks to 2 of Hubble’s devices: the Huge Area Digicam 3 (WFC3) and the Superior Digicam for Surveys (ACS). NASA says that the concept that two cameras can be utilized to take a single picture isn’t notably intuitive, however explains that it’s essential to create a photograph like this one.
“Our eyes can detect gentle waves at optical wavelengths between roughly 380 and 750 nanometers, utilizing three forms of receptors, every of which is delicate to only a slice of that vary,” the European House Company (ESA) explains.
“Our mind interprets these particular wavelengths as colours. Against this, a telescope digicam just like the WFC3 or ACS is delicate to a single, broad vary of wavelengths to maximise the quantity of sunshine collected. Uncooked photos from telescopes are at all times in grayscale, solely displaying the quantity of the sunshine captured throughout all these wavelengths.”
NASA explains that these colour images which can be revealed to the general public are created with the assistance of filters, a topic that the house company has defined in-depth on the Hubble web site.
“By sliding a filter over the aperture of an instrument just like the WFC3 or ACS, solely gentle from a really particular wavelength vary passes by way of,” the ESA continues.
“One such filter used on this picture is for inexperienced gentle round 555 nanometers. This yields a grayscale picture displaying solely the quantity of sunshine with that wavelength, permitting astronomers so as to add colour when processing the picture. This multicolor picture of NGC 1097 consists of photos utilizing seven completely different filters in whole.”
20 Years of Pictures
The ACS not too long ago celebrated 20 years of continuous use, over which period it has captured over 125,000 images and whose observations have been the supply of quite a few discoveries.
