Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced an outstanding image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1511.
This Hubble image shows NGC 1511, a barred spiral galaxy some 50 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydrus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Thilker.
NGC 1511 resides approximately 50 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Hydrus.
This spiral galaxy was discovered by the English astronomer John Herschel on November 2, 1834.
Otherwise known ESO 55-4, IRAS 03594-6746 or LEDA 14236, NGC 1511 is the central member of a small group of galaxies called the NGC 1511 group.
“Like many galaxies, NGC 1511 doesn’t travel through space alone,” the Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“Instead, it does so with a pair of small galactic companions called NGC 1511A and NGC 1511B, both of which lie outside the frame of this Hubble image.”
“NGC 1511B is situated closest to NGC 1511, and the two galaxies have apparently clashed in the past,” they noted.
“A narrow strand of hydrogen gas connects them, and NGC 1511B has been stretched and distorted by the encounter.”
Astronomers have even found evidence that NGC 1511 once had another small companion galaxy that it has disrupted entirely.
“These disruptions have an impact on NGC 1511, too,” the researchers said.
“The galaxy is experiencing a burst of star formation, and its disk features strange loops and plumes that could point to past interactions with its neighboring galaxies.”
“We will use Hubble’s keen observations of NGC 1511 to study star clusters embedded within its dusty gas, seeking to understand how matter is cycled from interstellar clouds to stars and back to clouds once again.”
