Eye of the Galaxy: Hubble Space Telescope Focuses On A Distant Barred Spiral Galaxy

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an amazing photo of the heart of the barred spiral galaxy called NGC 1097 located 48 million light-years away from Earth and residing in the constellation Fornax (The Furnace). As seen from the image, it sports a web of stars with the long, dark red hue tendrils of dust.

(Photo : NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope)
This finely detailed image shows the heart of NGC 1097, a barred spiral galaxy that lies about 48 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Fornax.

Hubble Shows Barred Spiral Galaxy Similar to Milky Way

Officials from the European Space Agency (ESA) said in a statement that the photo of the NGC 1097 that the Hubble Space Telescope took reveals the intricacy of the web of stars and dust of the galaxy, which is a barred spiral galaxy that puts it in the same category as the Milky Way. The photo was titled the "Eye of the Galaxy."

According to Space.com, the space telescope used two instruments to help capture the high-definition view. These are the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys, which has been in the Hubble for 20 years since its installation in 2002, servicing mission to the floating observatory.

Furthermore, the stunning image of the galaxy NGC 1097 relies on Hubble's capability of seeing in both visual and infrared wavelengths of light, unlike the naked eye, which can only detect light on the visible spectrum.

Both the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys are optimized for a specific set of wavelengths to capture the astonishing image of NGC 1097, which was colorized in visual wavelengths for public release. ESA officials claimed that the two cameras used seven different filters in total to accomplish the resulting image.

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What Do We Know About NGC 1097?

In 2012, the bubble Space Telescope captured a spectacular image of the bright star-forming ring surrounding the heart of NGC 1097. It is much different than the recent photo as its larger-scale structure is barely visible with comparatively dim spiral arms.

According to NASA, NGC 1097 is a Seyfert galaxy that has a supermassive black hole at its center, which gradually sucks the matter around it, and is 100 million times the mass of the Solar System's Sun. Due to the radiation coming from the material surrounding the black hole, it shines brightly and forms a distinctive ring that is bursting with new star formation because of the inflow of material.

These star nurseries are glowing from the clouds of ionized hydrogen. Scientists estimate that the ring is around 5,000 light-years across, while the arms of the galaxy extend to tens of thousands of light-years beyond it.

NGC 1097 is an exciting target for supernova hunters because it has already experienced three supernovae within 11 years, from 1992 to 2003. But even more so, astronomers love studying it because of its two small galaxy companions that seem to dance the dance of the stars and the dance of space like a gracious dancer described in Khalil Gibran's famous poem called The Dancer.

These two satellite galaxies are the elliptical galaxy NGC 1097A and the small dwarf galaxy called NGC 1097B. Astronomers believe that NGC 1097 and NGC 1097A have interacted before, given the latter's location, 42,000 light-years from the former's center.