This image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope reveals a detailed view of part of the disc of NGC 1448, one of the nearest luminous galaxies to the Milky Way.
This image, taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera, shows the unbarred spiral galaxy NGC 1448. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.
NGC 1448 lies in the little-known constellation of Horologium, approximately 56 million light-years away.
It was discovered on October 24, 1835 by the British astronomer John Herschel.
Also known as LEDA 13727 and ESO 249-16, this galaxy is a member of the NGC 1433 group, part of the Doradus cloud of galaxies.
NGC 1448 is an unbarred spiral galaxy seen almost edge-on.
Although spiral galaxies might appear static with their picturesque shapes frozen in space, this is very far from the truth.
The stars in these dramatic spiral configurations are constantly moving and spinning around the galaxy’s core, with those on the inside whirling around faster than those sitting further out.
This makes the formation and continued existence of a spiral galaxy’s arms something of a cosmic puzzle, because the arms wrapped around the spinning core should become wound tighter and tighter as time goes on — but this is not what we see.
In January 2017, NuSTAR project scientist Daniel Stern and co-authors announced the discovery of a giant black hole in NGC 1448.
The team also found that NGC 1448 has a large population of very young — just 5 million year old — stars, suggesting that the galaxy produces new stars at the same time that its black hole feeds on gas and dust.
This image of NGC 1448 is a composite of separate exposures acquired by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
Three filters (the green filter F555W, the near-infrared filter F814W, and the very broad filter F350LP) were used to sample various wavelengths.
The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
