NGC 4789A, a small galaxy approximately 14 million light-years away, is the subject of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
This Hubble image shows the dwarf irregular galaxy NGC 4789A. The image also reveals numerous other galaxies, far more distant, that appear as fuzzy shapes spread across the image. The colors in this image have been deliberately exaggerated to emphasize the mix of blue and red stars. The blue stars are bright, hot and massive stars that have formed relatively recently, whereas the red stars are much older. The presence of both tells us that stars have been forming in this galaxy throughout its history. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.
NGC 4789A is a 13th-magnitude dwarf irregular galaxy in the constellation of Coma Berenices.
The stars that call this galaxy home are smeared out across the sky in an apparently disorderly and irregular jumble, giving NGC 4789A a far more subtle and abstract appearance than its glitzy spiral and elliptical cousins.
These stars may look as if they have been randomly sprinkled on the sky, but they are all held together by gravity.
NGC 4789A contains a huge amount of atomic hydrogen and has a very large ratio of dark matter to ordinary matter but, for some reasons, has a very low star formation rate.
Also known as LEDA 43869, DDO 154 and UGC 8024, this galaxy is a physical companion of the famous spiral galaxy Messier 64.
In 1975, astronomers suggested that these two galaxies form a small group, or cloud, of galaxies with the huge spiral Messier 94 and a number of fainter galaxies.
This image of NGC 4789A is a composite of separate exposures acquired by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).
Two filters (broad V-band filter F606W and near-infrared filter F814W) were used to sample various wavelengths.
The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
