The Hubble team has released an incredibly beautiful close-up shot of the intermediate spiral galaxy NGC 1566, which is located in the constellation of Dorado.
NGC 1566 lies approximately 70 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Dorado.
Colloquially nicknamed the Spanish Dancer, this spiral galaxy was discovered by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop on May 28, 1826.
Two spiral arms of NGC 1566 appear to wind around the galactic core, just like the arms of a dancer as they spin around and around in a furious twirl.
“NGC 1566 is a weakly-barred or intermediate spiral galaxy, meaning that it does not have either a clearly present or a clearly absent bar-shaped structure at its center,” the Hubble astronomers said.
“The galaxy owes its nickname to the vivid and dramatic swirling lines of its spiral arms, which could evoke the shapes and colors of a dancer’s moving form.”
Also known as LEDA 14897, ESO 157-20 or RBS 534, NGC 1566 is a member of the Dorado galaxy group.
“Galaxy groups are assemblages of gravitationally bound galaxies,” the astronomers said.
“Groups differ from galaxy clusters in size and mass: galaxy clusters may contain hundreds of galaxies, whereas groups might contain several tens of galaxies.”
“There is not a precise delineation between the definition of a galaxy group and a galaxy cluster.”
“Some astronomers have proposed that the definitions be sharpened up, with one suggestion that galaxy aggregations with less mass than 80 trillion solar masses should qualify as galaxy groups.”
“The Dorado group has had a fluctuating membership over the past few decades, with various scientific papers changing its list of constituent galaxies,” they added.
“As an example of why it is so challenging for us to pin down members of groups such as the Dorado group, we can imagine a photograph of an adult human and a large oak tree.”
“We have foreknowledge of the approximate size of the person and the tree,…
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