The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an outstanding image of part of the spiral galaxy NGC 3718.
This Hubble image shows NGC 3718, a spiral galaxy some 52 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major. Image credit: NASA / ESA / L. Ho, Peking University / Gladys Kober, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center / Catholic University of America.
NGC 3718 is located approximately 52 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major.
Also called Arp 214, LEDA 35616 and UGC 6524, the galaxy is about 110,000 light-years across.
It was discovered on April 12, 1789 by the German-born British astronomer Wilhelm Herschel.
“NGC 3718 is a highly disturbed spiral galaxy with an unusual, warped shape that looks a bit like a plump letter ‘s’ from Earth, with a thin thread of dark dust snaking through it,” Hubble astronomers said.
“Hubble’s view of this portion of NGC 3718 shows the sinuous, twisting dust lane in detail as it sweeps by the core of the galaxy and curves into the surrounding gas.”
“Both the galaxy’s gas and dust lane are similarly distorted into this unique configuration.”
NGC 3718 is thought to get its warped, s-shape from gravitational interaction with a nearby spiral galaxy called NGC 3729.
“Among the features likely caused by this interaction are the line of reddish star formation that extends toward the 9 o’clock position, and the dark tendril of dust that reaches toward the 7 o’clock position,” the researchers said.
The new image of NGC 3718 was taken by Hubble in infrared and visible light as part of a study of the central regions of disk-shaped galaxies with prominent bulges of stars in multiple environments.
The study was meant to help clarify the relationship between the mass of supermassive black holes and the properties of galactic bulges.
It also aimed to investigate star formation on a galactic scale, from the region around the nucleus to a galaxy’s disk.
“The nucleus of NGC 3718 is extremely hard to detect in either visible or ultraviolet light because the prominent dust lane blocks much of those wavelengths, but it can be seen when viewing infrared light, which passes through dusty regions,” the scientists said.
Source link: https://www.sci.news/astronomy/hubble-spiral-galaxy-unusual-warped-shape-10841.html
