Using the Gemini Multi-Object Spectrograph (GMOS) on the Gemini North telescope at NSF’s International Gemini Observatory, operated by NOIRLab, astronomers have captured a stunning image of NGC 1270 and several other galaxies in the central region of the enormous Perseus galaxy cluster.
NGC 1270 is located about 250 million light-years away in the constellation of Perseus.
This elliptical galaxy was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich d’Arrest on February 14, 1863.
Also known as LEDA 12350 or UGC 2660, NGC 1270 has an estimated age of about 11 billion years.
It is a member of a group of thousands of galaxies called the Perseus cluster.
“It’s astonishing to think that when NGC 1270 was first discovered in 1863 it was not widely accepted that other galaxies even existed,” the NOIRLab astronomers said.
“Many of the objects that are now known to be galaxies were initially described as nebulae, owing to their cloudy, amorphous appearance.”
“The idea that they are entities of a similar size to our own Milky Way, or ‘island Universes’ as Immanuel Kant called them, was speculated on by several astronomers throughout history, but was not proven.”
“Instead, many thought they were smaller objects on the outskirts of the Milky Way, which many believed to comprise most or all of the Universe.”
“The nature of these mysterious objects and the size of the Universe were the subjects of astronomy’s famous Great Debate, held in 1920 between astronomers Heber Curtis and Harlow Shapley.”
“The debate remained unsettled until 1924 when Edwin Hubble, using the Hooker telescope at Mount Wilson Observatory, observed stars within some of the nebulae to calculate how far they were from Earth. The results were decisive; they were far beyond the Milky Way.”
“Astronomers’ notion of the cosmos underwent a dramatic shift, now populated with innumerable strange, far-off galaxies as large and complex as our own.”
“As imaging techniques have…
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