The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking new photo of the spiral galaxy NGC 2985.
This Hubble image shows the multi-armed spiral galaxy NGC 2985. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). It is based on data obtained through two filters: F658W and F814W. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Ho.
NGC 2985 was discovered by the British astronomer William Herschel on April 3, 1785.
The galaxy lies approximately 59 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major.
Also known as LEDA 28316, UGC 5253 or IRAS 09459+7230, it is about 95,000 light-years across.
NGC 2985 is the brightest member of a nearby small group of galaxies — the NGC 2985 group — which includes the spiral galaxy NGC 3027 and the dwarf galaxy UGC 5455.
The galaxy has a bright nucleus from which emanate multiple tightly-wound spiral arms.
Its arms have numerous bright, blue knots that are presumably sites of ongoing star formation.
NGC 2985 also hosts a supermassive black hole that is about 160 million times the mass of the Sun.
“Over aeons, spiral galaxies tend to run into other galaxies, often resulting in mergers,” Hubble astronomers said.
“These coalescing events scramble the winding structures of the original galaxies, smoothing and rounding their shape.”
“These objects possess a beauty all their own, distinct from the spiral galaxies from whence they came.”
