An international team of astronomers operating ESO’s Very Large Telescope has released a new image of the spiral galaxy NGC 1187.
This image shows the galaxy NGC 1187. This impressive galaxy lies about 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus (ESO)
Lying about 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Eridanus, NGC 1187 has hosted two supernova explosions since 1982.
The galaxy is seen almost face-on, which gives us a good view of its spiral structure. About half a dozen prominent spiral arms can be seen, each containing large amounts of gas and dust. The bluish features in the spiral arms indicate the presence of young stars.
Looking towards the central regions, one can see the bulge of the galaxy glowing yellow. This part of the galaxy is mostly made up of old stars, gas and dust.
Around the outside of the galaxy many much fainter and more distant galaxies can also be seen. Some even shine right through the disc of NGC 1187 itself. Their mostly reddish hues contrast with the pale blue star clusters of the much closer object.
NGC 1187, discovered by William Herschel in 1784, looks tranquil and unchanging, but it has hosted two supernovae explosions during the last thirty years.
In October 1982, the first supernova seen in the galaxy – SN 1982R was discovered at ESO’s La Silla Observatory in Chile.
And more recently, in 2007, the amateur astronomer Berto Monard in South Africa spotted another supernova in this galaxy, known as SN 2007Y.
Supernova SN 2007Y (ESO)
Astronomers subsequently performed a detailed study and monitored SN 2007Y for about a year using many different telescopes. This new image of NGC 1187 was created from observations taken as part of this study and the supernova can be seen, long after the time of maximum brightness, near the bottom of the image.
