Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced a spectacularly detailed image of a part of the spiral galaxy NGC 4603.
This Hubble image shows NGC 4603, a spiral galaxy some 107 million light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Maund.
NGC 4603 is located approximately 107 million light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus.
This galaxy was discovered on June 8, 1834 by the English astronomer John Herschel.
Otherwise known as ESO 322-52, IRAS 12382-4042 and LEDA 42510, it has a diameter of 110,000 light-years.
NGC 4603 is a member of the Centaurus Cluster of galaxies, a group of over 100 galaxies.
The galaxy is classified as SA(s)c, meaning it is a pure spiral galaxy with relatively loosely-wound arms.
“Bright bands of blue young stars make up the arms of NGC 4603, which wind lazily outwards from the luminous core,” Hubble astronomers said.
“The intricate red-brown filaments threading through the spiral arms are known as dust lanes, and consist of dense clouds of dust which obscure the diffuse starlight from the galaxy.”
“NGC 4603 is a familiar subject for Hubble,” they added.
“In the last years of the twentieth century, the galaxy was keenly and closely watched for signs of a peculiar class of stars known as Cepheid variables.”
“These stars have a luminosity closely tied to the period with which they darken and brighten, allowing astronomers to accurately measure how far they are from Earth.”
“Distance measurements from Cepheid variables are key to measuring the furthest distances in the Universe, and were one of the factors used by Georges Lemaître and Edwin Hubble to show that the Universe is expanding.”
