The sharp-eyed Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the most detailed image yet of a galaxy called NGC 6503.
This image shows the LINER galaxy NGC 6503. Image credit: NASA / ESA / D. Calzetti, University of Massachusetts / H. Ford, Johns Hopkins University / Hubble Heritage Team.
NGC 6503, also known as LEDA 60921 or TC 575, lies in the northern circumpolar constellation of Draco, approximately 20.4 million light-years from Earth. The galaxy spans some 30,000 light-years, about a third of the size of our home Milky Way Galaxy.
Most galaxies are clumped together in galactic clusters and superclusters, but NGC 6503 has found itself in a lonely position, at the edge of an empty patch of space called the Local Void.
The Local Void is a huge stretch of space that is at least 150 million light-years across. It seems completely empty of stars or galaxies.
NGC 6503’s location right on the edge of this void led astronomer Stephen James O’Meara to dub it the ‘Lost-In-Space galaxy’ in his 2007 book, Hidden Treasures.
The galaxy has an almost non-existent central bulge surrounded by a massive halo of gas. Its central region is a good example of what is known as a low ionization nuclear emission region (LINER). These are less luminous than some of the brightest galaxies.
Emission from the galaxy’s core is believed to be the result of a starved black hole that is only just being kept active, receiving a very small amount of infalling gas to keep its large appetite at bay.
A previous image of NGC 6503 was released as a Hubble Picture of the Week back in 2010, taken by Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.
However, this new image shows NGC 6503 in striking detail and with a richer set of colors.
Bright red patches of gas can be seen scattered through its swirling spiral arms, mixed with bright blue regions that contain newly-forming stars. Dark brown dust lanes snake across the NGC 6503’s bright arms and center, giving it a mottled appearance.
