Astronomers utilizing the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced a spectacularly detailed picture of the spiral galaxy UGC 9391.
This Hubble picture reveals UGC 9391, a spiral galaxy some 120 million light-years away within the constellation Draco. Image credit score: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Riess et al.
UGC 9391 is positioned roughly 120 million light-years away within the constellation of Draco.
Also referred to as DDO 193, LEDA 52091 and SDSS J143437.01+592016.1, the galaxy shouldn’t be a member of any group of galaxies and is shifting away from the Milky Way at 1,939 km/s (1,205 miles/s).
“The star-studded spiral arms of UGC 9391 stand in splendid isolation against a backdrop of distant galaxies, which are only visible as indistinct swirls or smudges thanks to their vast distances from Earth,” Hubble astronomers mentioned.
“The image also features some much brighter foreground stars closer to home,” they added.
“These bright nearby stars are ringed with diffraction spikes — prominent spikes caused by light interacting with the inner workings of Hubble’s complicated optics.”
The shade picture of UGC 9391 consists of infrared, optical and ultraviolet observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
Four filters have been used to pattern numerous wavelengths. The shade outcomes from assigning completely different hues to every monochromatic picture related to a person filter.
“This image is from a set of Hubble observations which we use to construct the ‘cosmic distance ladder’ — a set of connected measurements allowing the distances to the most distant astronomical objects to be determined,” the researchers mentioned.
“Astronomical distances are only directly measurable for relatively nearby objects — closer than 3,000 light-years or so.”
“For distances beyond this, we rely on a set of measured correlations calibrated against nearby objects.”
“UGC 9391 helped us improve our distance estimates by providing a natural laboratory in which to compare two measuring techniques — supernova explosions and Cepheid variables,” they mentioned.
“Improving the precision of distance measurements helps us quantify how quickly the Universe is expanding — one of Hubble’s key science goals.”