Astronomers working with the Hubble telescope have published its new image. The image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 3511.
NGC 3511 is located 43 million light-years away from Earth toward the constellation Crater. It is a transitional-type spiral galaxy. Such objects occupy an intermediate position between spiral galaxies with a bar, like our Milky Way, and galaxies without bars.
The galaxy photographed by Hubble is also interesting in its orientation. It’s tilted about 70 degrees relative to Earth. It is also intermediate in this respect between galaxies facing us, whose images show their complex structure in great detail, and galaxies seen from the edge, which show only their dense, flattened disks.
The viewing angle of NGC 3511 is enough to see its two diffuse spiral arms, as well as the dim bar. A black hole lurks at the center of the galaxy, with a mass ranging from 1.3 to 6.2 million solar masses. This is comparable to the mass of the black hole Sagittarius A*, which is located in the core of the Milky Way.
NGC 3511 was imaged during a study of the star formation cycle in nearby galaxies. As part of this program, Hubble captures the appearance of 55 galaxies using five filters that let in light of different wavelengths.
Many red areas can be seen in the Hubble photo. They correspond to giant hydrogen clouds dotting the spiral arms of NGC 3511. Some are swirled around clusters of bright blue stars whose powerful radiation ionizes them and makes them glow. Hubble will help astronomers to catalog and measure the exact age of these stars. It is typically less than a few million years old with a mass several times that of the Sun.
According to Esahubble
