What is this celestial object? At first glance, it doesn’t look like the galaxies, nebulae, star and galaxy clusters that the Hubble telescope usually photographs. But actually, it’s quite simple. We’re looking at a spiral galaxy called UGC 10043. It’s just turned sideways.
UGC 10043 is located about 150 million light-years away from Earth toward the constellation Serpent. It is one of the rather rare spiral galaxies that are visible from the rib.
When observed from such an unusual angle, we see the galactic disk as a sharp line with a dust band superimposed on it. This dust is distributed throughout the spiral arms of UGC 10043: but when we look from the side, it appears very thick. We can also see the lights of some of the largest and most active star-forming regions whose light manages to break through the dust veil.
At the center of UGC 10043, a luminous, almost egg-shaped “bulge” can be seen rising above its disk. All spiral galaxies have a similar structure called a bulge. It contains stars orbiting the galactic center along trajectories above and below the disk. This feature is not usually visible in photographs of galaxies. The unusually large size of UGC 10043’s bulge compared to its disk can be explained by the fact that it sucks material from a neighboring dwarf galaxy. This is probably why the disk is bent, curving upward at one end and downward at the other.
Like most of Hubble’s color photographs, this image is composite. It is assembled from several separate images taken at different times and capturing different wavelengths of light. This case is notable because two sets of photos taken 23 years apart — in 2000 and 2023 — were used for the image. This demonstrates not only the amazing longevity of the Hubble telescope, but also how important it is for astronomers to have a long-term archive of observational data.
We previously told you about how “red monsters” in the early Universe challenged astronomers.
Provided by Esahubble
