Astronomers working with the Hubble telescope have published a new image. It shows the glowing galaxy NGC 685.
NGC 685 is located 64 million light-years from Earth toward the constellation Eridanus. Like our Milky Way, it is classified as a spiral galaxy with a junction. Admittedly, it is inferior in size. NGC 685 is about one and a half times smaller than our galaxy. At its center is a supermassive black hole, whose mass is millions of times greater than that of the Sun.
Astronomers used Hubble to study NGC 685 as part of two observational programs. Both were devoted to the processes of new star formation. Not surprisingly, NGC 685 was chosen for these programs: numerous clusters of young blue luminaries frame the spiral arms of the galaxy.
Many of these star clusters are surrounded by pink gas clouds called H II regions. These are gas clouds that glow for a short time when particularly hot and massive stars are born in them. A particularly spectacular H II region can be seen at the bottom of the image. Despite the dozens of star-forming regions caught in the Hubble photo, NGC 685 converts an amount of gas equivalent to less than half the mass of the Sun into stars each year.
The data collected by Hubble during the two observational programs will allow astronomers to catalog 50,000 H II regions and 100,000 star clusters in nearby galaxies. By combining Hubble’s visible and ultraviolet observations with infrared data from the James Webb Space Telescope and radio data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, researchers will be able to peer into the dusty depths of stellar nurseries and study the stars forming there.
Earlier, we told you about how the James Webb telescope photographed the first galaxies at the edge of the Universe.
Provided by Esahubble
