The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an unprecedented image of the central region of the spiral galaxy NGC 2903.
This Hubble image shows the central part of the spiral galaxy NGC 2903. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / L. Ho et al.
Few of the Universe’s residents are as iconic as the spiral galaxy.
These limelight-hogging celestial objects combine whirling, pinwheeling arms with scatterings of sparkling stars, glowing bursts of gas, and dark, weaving lanes of cosmic dust, creating truly awesome scenes.
The spiral galaxy NGC 2903 is located approximately 30 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo.
Also known as LEDA 27077, UGC 5079 and IRAS 09293+2143, the galaxy was discovered by the German-born British astronomer William Herschel on November 16, 1784.
NGC 2903 has an extremely high speed of creating new stars in its central region.
It was studied as part of a Hubble survey of central regions of roughly 145 nearby galaxies.
The study aimed to help astronomers better understand the relationship between the black holes that lurk at the cores of galaxies, and the rugby-ball-shaped bulge of stars, gas, and dust at the galaxy’s center — such as that seen in this image of NGC 2903.
The image is a composite of separate exposures acquired by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).
Two spectral filters — F658W and F814W — were used to sample various wavelengths.
The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
