The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking new photo of the dwarf irregular galaxy ESO 300-16.
ESO 300-16 is located 28.7 million light-years away from Earth in the southern constellation of Eridanus.
Otherwise known as LEDA 11842 or HIPASS J0310-39, the galaxy is classified as a dwarf irregular galaxy — a ghostly assemblage of stars which resembles a sparkling cloud.
“ESO 300-16 is made of many tiny stars all clumped together, surrounded in a diffuse light,” the Hubble astronomers said.
“In the central, brightest part there is a bubble of blue gas.”
“The galaxy is surrounded by mostly very small and faint objects, though there are bright stars above and to the left of it, and a string of galaxies nearby.”
The new image of ESO 300-16 is made up of observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in the near-infrared and optical parts of the spectrum.
Two filters were used to sample various wavelengths.
The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromaticimage associated with an individual filter.
“This observation is one of a series which aims to get to know our galactic neighbors,” the astronomers said.
“Around three quarters of the known galaxies suspected to lie within 10 megaparsecs of Earth have been observed by Hubble in enough detail to resolve their brightest stars and establish the distances to these galaxies.”
The researchers proposed using small gaps in Hubble’s observing schedule to acquaint ourselves with the remaining quarter of the nearby galaxies.
“The megaparsec — meaning one million parsecs — is a unit used by astronomers to chart the mind-bogglingly large distances involved in astronomy,” they said.
“The motion of Earth around the Sun means that stars appear to slightly shift against very distant stars over the course of a year.”
“This small shift is referred to as parallax and is measured in angular units: degrees, minutes, and seconds.”
“One parsec…
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