NASA-ESA's Hubble captures stunning spiral barred twin of the Milky Way galaxy

tech2 News Staff • June 10, 2019, 15:18:08 IST

The Wide Field Camera 3, which captured the image has been in use since 2009, with 2,40,000+ observations to its name.

NASA-ESA's Hubble captures stunning spiral barred twin of the Milky Way galaxy

NASA and ESA’s Hubble Telescope has taken a hauntingly beautiful image of a spiral galaxy 357 million light-years away — a twin barred spiral of our own Milky Way.

The galaxy NGC 7773 pictured is located in the constellation of Pegasus and is remarkably similar in its structure to our own galaxy, the Milky Way. Both are barred galaxies i.e. have a bright bar passing through the heart of the galaxies. Since these galaxies develop over time, scientists think that these bars could be indicators for how old and mature the galaxies are. Even in barred spirals, the smaller or younger galaxies don’t have bars or appear less commonly, as the bars come to exists with age as more stars get pulled closer to the centre.

This striking image was taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3, a powerful instrument installed on the telescope in 2009. WFC3 is responsible for many of Hubble’s most breathtaking and iconic photographs, including Pictures of the Week. Shown here, NGC 7773 is a beautiful example of a barred spiral galaxy. A luminous bar-shaped structure cuts prominently through the galaxy's bright core, extending to the inner boundary of NGC 7773's sweeping, pinwheel-like spiral arms. Astronomers think that these bar structures emerge later in the lifetime of a galaxy, as star-forming material makes its way towards the galactic centre — younger spirals do not feature barred structures as often as older spirals do, suggesting that bars are a sign of galactic maturity. They are also thought to act as stellar nurseries, as they gleam brightly with copious numbers of youthful stars. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is thought to be a barred spiral like NGC 7773. By studying galactic specimens such as NGC 7773 throughout the Universe, researchers hope to learn more about the processes that have shaped — and continue to shape — our cosmic home.

NASA calls these barred galaxies “limelight-hogging celestial objects combine whirling, pinwheeling arms with scatterings of sparkling stars, glowing bursts of gas, and dark, weaving lanes of cosmic dust, creating truly awesome scenes.”

They are thought to be nurseries for young stars as they burn bright due to the countless numbers of young stars that are born in the spiral galactic arms. By studying other galaxies, scientists hope to understand our galaxy and the processes that took place to form the structure of the Milky Way. The image can also go a long way in helping astronomers understand clusters of stars and dust and even the effects of dark matter on clusters of stars and galaxies.

The Hubble Space Telescope in orbit above Earth. Image: NASA

The Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) on the Hubble telescope was used to capture this image, made from a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). The WFC3 had been installed in the telescope in 2009 and is usually responsible for most of the incredible images that come out from space.

On 8 January 2019, the camera suddenly shut down due to some technical error. However, technicians reset the camera to its former glory, Till date, WFC3 has made upwards of 240,000 observations, making it the most widely used instrument in the Hubble telescope.

Even the Hubble telescope has continued to live well past its 15-year lifespan — now in its 29th year.