Experts working with the Hubble telescope, which recently celebrated its 35th birthday, have published a colorful new image obtained by it. It captures the spiral galaxy NGC 3596.
The spiral galaxy NGC 3596 is located 90 million light-years from Earth toward the constellation Leo. It was discovered in 1784 by astronomer William Herschel, after whom the European space observatory Hershel was named.
When observed from Earth, NGC 3596 looks almost perfect. It shows neatly twisted spiral arms that mark where stars, gas, and dust are concentrated in the galaxy. They are also where the most active star formation occurs. This is evidenced by the bright pink star-forming regions and newly formed blue luminaries that are clearly visible in the Hubble image.
What causes spiral arms to form? Answering this question is not easy, partly because of the amazing variety of spiral galaxies. Some have distinct spiral arms, while others are clumpy. Some have conspicuous bands through the center, while others have compact round nuclei. Some have close neighbors, while others are isolated.
Early ideas about the formation of spiral arms were confounded by the so-called “winding problem”. If the spiral arms of a galaxy are coherent structures, then as the galaxy rotates, they should twist tighter and tighter until they are no longer visible.
The researchers now believe that the spiral arms are not a physical structure, but a sequence of high and low density regions. They figuratively compare it to an automobile traffic jam. Like cars stuck in it, stars, gas and dust slow down and bunch up as they enter and then exit the spiral arm and continue their journey through the galaxy.
Earlier we reported on how Hubble photographed a “black pillar” in the Eagle Nebula.
According to Esahubble
