Hubble views a tranquil galaxy with an explosive past

Hubble Views a Tranquil Galaxy with an Explosive Past
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Jones, A. Riess et al.

The lazily winding spiral arms of the spectacular galaxy NGC 976 fill the frame of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This spiral galaxy lies around 150 million light-years from the Milky Way in the constellation Aries. Despite its tranquil appearance, NGC 976 has played host to one of the most violent astronomical phenomena known – a supernova explosion. These cataclysmically violent events take place at the end of the lives of massive stars and can outshine entire galaxies for a short period. While supernovae mark the deaths of massive stars, they are also responsible for the creation of heavy elements that are incorporated into later generations of stars and planets.

Supernovae are also a useful aid for astronomers who measure the distances to faraway galaxies. The amount of energy thrown out into space by some types of supernova explosions is very uniform, allowing astronomers to estimate their distances from how bright they appear to be when viewed from Earth. This image – which was created using data from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 – comes from a large collection of Hubble observations of nearby galaxies which host as well as a pulsating class of stars known as Cepheid variables. Both Cepheids and supernovae are used to measure astronomical distances, and galaxies containing both objects provide useful natural laboratories where the two methods can be calibrated against one another.



Citation:
Hubble views a tranquil galaxy with an explosive past (2022, January 15)
retrieved 28 January 2022
from https://phys.org/news/2022-01-hubble-views-tranquil-galaxy-explosive.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no
part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

Note: This article have been indexed to our site. We do not claim legitimacy, ownership or copyright of any of the content above. To see the article at original source Click Here

Related Posts
Climate activists stage slow march through German capital thumbnail

Climate activists stage slow march through German capital

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 1of21Activists of the "Letzte Generation", Last Generation, march during a protest against the climate policy of the German government in central in Berlin, Germany, Friday, April 21, 2023. Poster reads: last Generation - Before the tipping point.Markus Schreiber/AP BERLIN (AP) — German climate activists
Read More
New Caledonian Crows Prefer Hooked Stick Tools, Safely Store Them Underfoot or in Holes thumbnail

New Caledonian Crows Prefer Hooked Stick Tools, Safely Store Them Underfoot or in Holes

According to a new study, New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) strongly prefer hooked stick tools made from stems of the ground tamarind (Desmanthus virgatus) over non-hooked stick tools; importantly, this preference is also reflected in subsequent tool-handling behavior, with the birds keeping hooked stick tools safe more often than non-hooked stick tools sourced from leaf…
Read More
Index Of News
Total
0
Share