Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
Acknowledgement: Josh Barrington
Acknowledgement: Josh Barrington
Galaxies can take many shapes and be oriented any way relative to us
in the sky. This can make it hard to figure out their actual morphology,
as a galaxy can look very different from different viewpoints. A
special case is when we are lucky enough to observe a spiral galaxy
directly from its edge, providing us with a spectacular view like the
one seen in this picture of the week.
This is NGC 7814, also known as the “Little Sombrero”. Its larger namesake the Sombrero Galaxy
is another stunning example of an edge-on galaxy — in fact, the “Little
Sombrero” is about the same size as its bright namesake at about 60 000
light-years across, but as it lies further away, it appears smaller in
the sky.
NGC 7814 has a bright central bulge and a bright halo of
glowing gas extending outwards into space. The dusty spiral arms appear
as dark streaks. they consist of dusty material that absorbs and blocks
light from the galactic centre behind it. The field of view of this
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image would be very impressive even
without NGC 7814 in front; nearly all the objects seen in this image are
galaxies as well.
A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Josh Barrington.
