The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced an outstanding image of a spiral galaxy called UGCA 193.
This Hubble image shows the edge-on spiral galaxy UGCA 193. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / R. Tully / Gagandeep Anand.
UGCA 193 is located approximately 32 million light-years away in the constellation of Sextans.
Also known as FGC 998 or LEDA 29086, this galaxy is a member of the NGC 3115 group, a small gathering of several galaxies of varied shapes and colors.
“Looking rather like a waterfall, UGCA 193 appears to host many young stars, especially in its lower portion, creating a striking blue haze and the sense that the stars are falling from above,” Hubble astronomers said.
“The blue color of UGCA 193 indicates the stars that we see are hot — some with temperatures exceeding 6 times that of our Sun.”
“We know that cooler stars appear to our eyes more red, and hotter stars appear more blue,” they added.
“As the mass and surface temperature of a star, and therefore its color, are linked, heavier stars are able to burn at higher temperatures resulting in a blue glow from their surface.”
The new image of UGCA 193 is made up of observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in the near-infrared and optical parts of the spectrum.
It is based on data obtained through two filters: a broad V (F606W) filter and a red (F814W) filter.
The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
