NASA has released a stunning photo taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 1961.
This Hubble image shows NGC 1961, an intermediate spiral galaxy some 197 million light-years away in the constellation of Camelopardalis. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Dalcanton, University of Washington / R. Foley, University of California, Santa Cruz / G. Kober, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Catholic University of America.
NGC 1961 lies approximately 60 million parsecs (197 million light-years) away in the constellation of Camelopardalis.
The galaxy was discovered by the German-born British astronomer William Herschel on December 3, 1788.
Otherwise known as Arp 184, IC 2133, LEDA 17625 and UGC 3334, it is more than 220,000 light-years across — over two times larger than our Milky Way Galaxy.
NGC 1961 is the central member of the NGC 1961 group, a small group of nine galaxies.
“NGC 1961 unfurls its gorgeous spiral arms in this newly released image,” Hubble astronomers said.
“Glittering, blue regions of bright young stars dot the dusty spiral arms winding around the galaxy’s glowing center.”
NGC 1961 is classified as both an intermediate spiral galaxy and an active galactic nucleus (AGN).
“Intermediate spirals are in between barred and unbarred spiral galaxies, meaning they don’t have a well-defined bar of stars at their centers,” the astronomers explained.
“AGN galaxies have very bright centers that often far outshine the rest of the galaxy at certain wavelengths of light.”
“These galaxies likely have supermassive black holes at their cores churning out bright jets and winds that shape their evolution.”
“NGC 1961 is a fairly common type of AGN that emits low-energy-charged particles.”
Source link: https://www.sci.news/astronomy/hubble-spiral-galaxy-ngc-1961-11202.html
