Hubble captures galaxy with brilliant blue arms and billion-year-old “circumnuclear ring”


Hubble NGC 6951

This complex image of NGC 6951, a galaxy in the Cepheus constellation, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope, ESA, A. Filippenko (University of California – Berkeley), R. Foley (University of California – Santa Cruz), C. Kilpatrick (Northwestern University), and D. Sand (University of Arizona); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)

NASA‘S Hubble Space Telescope This detailed image has been captured of NGC 6951, a remarkable galaxy in the Cepheus constellation. Famous for its star formation history, unique classification, and numerous supernova events, this galaxy provides astronomers with valuable insights into the workings of the universe.

Bright blue spiral arms swirl around the bright white center of this starry galaxy. This new image from the NASA Hubble Space Telescope includes NGC 6951, an intermediate spiral galaxy 78 million light-years away in the constellation Cepheus.

Discovered independently by French astronomer Jérôme Coggia in 1877 and American astronomer Lewis Swift in 1878, NGC 6951 attracts scientists with its illustrious history. This galaxy had its highest rate of star formation about 800 million years ago, then remained quiet for 300 million years before producing stars again. The average age of a star cluster, or group of gravitationally bound stars, in this galaxy is 200 to 300 million years old, although some are as old as a billion years. Turbulent regions of gas, shown in dark red, surround the bright blue pinpricks that are the star clusters.

Classification and characteristics of NGC 6951

Astronomers often classify NGC 6951 as a Type II Seyfert galaxy, a type of active galaxy that emits large amounts of infrared radiation and has slow-moving gaseous matter near its center. Some astronomers classify NGC 6951 as a low-ionization nuclear emission-line region (LINEAR) galaxy, similar to a Type II Seyfert galaxy, but with a cooler nucleus that is composed of weakly ionized or neutral elements such as oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. emits atoms. The entire galaxy is about 75,000 light-years wide, and because it is close to the north celestial pole, it is visible from the Northern Hemisphere.

The Heart of the Galaxy and its Supernova Events

At the center of NGC 6951 is a supermassive black hole surrounded by a ring of star, gas and dust about 3,700 light years wide. This “circular nuclear ring” is 1 to 1.5 billion years old and has been forming stars for most of that time. Scientists speculate that interstellar gas flows through the galaxy’s dense, starry belt to the circumnuclear ring, supplying new material for star formation. Up to 40 percent of the mass in the ring comes from relatively young stars that are less than 100 million years old. Spiral lines of dust, shown in dark orange, connect the galaxy’s center to its outer regions, contributing more material to future star formation.

Some of the stars in NGC 6951 have also experienced spectacular stellar explosions known as supernovae; Astronomers have counted six supernovae in this galaxy over the past 25 years. Scientists continue to study NGC 6951 to better understand the environment that produces supernovae. Studying emissions from supernovae helps astronomers understand the progeny star, its age, brightness, and position. This image uses data from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The data is in both visible and infrared light.




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