The humans is anightmare , but exotic human beings are sensational , shocking and utterly , beautifullymad . So alternatively of inquire what ’s chance down here , permit ’s , for a abbreviated moment , look up at what ’s happen out there .
Courtesy of the venerable Hubble Space Telescope , we have a brand - new , arresting image of a spiral wandflower by the name of NGC 3344 , examine here demo off its shimmering wizard with aplomb . Not content with being infuriatingly incandescent , lingering in the majestic - sounding configuration of Leo Minor , it ’s in reality position at an angle where we can wonder at it face on , rather than awkwardly at an angle .
According to a press acquittance by theEuropean Space Agency(ESA ) , approximately half the size of the Milky Way , it ’s a weakly barred spiraling galaxy – a familiar squiggly whorl with a bar - forge primal social structure instill with adorable stars . Although a common feature film of spiraling galaxies , NGC 3344 has n’t managed it with quite the same layer of finesse , which has earned it that “ weakly ” article .
You ’re being lied to a little , though . This is n’t a true colouring paradigm , but a composite plant , one composed of images taken over several different wavelength , from the ultraviolet illumination through the optical to the infrared radiation . This means , features that would be invisible to our own eye are , as luck would have it , very visible indeed .
High - temperature blue - tint regions are full of whiz birth , whereas the redder zones are H - rich ponds of material consummate for fashion new stellar furnaces . Those bright star to the top - left of the shot , by the way , are n’t part of the remote spinny wonderment , nor are they lens glare effects add together by J.J. Abrams : they ’re star from our very own Milky Way , plainly photobombing NGC 3344 .
There are some rum feature to NGC 3344 , according toNASA . Some of its out stars are moving in a slightly unexpected way – not quite in perfect sync with the repose of the galactic whirlpool – which may paint a picture they ’ve been poached from another galaxy during a close-fitting clash , eons ago .
In what amount to something of an astro - crush , ESA excuse that “ this splendid spiral wandflower has all the quality of a unadulterated galactic Valentine . ” At 20 million clear - twelvemonth aside , they ’re distinctly slant for a record in recollective - distance relationships .
Whatever you recollect of the aesthetic quality of NGC 3344 , it ’s secure to say that the double quality piss a big conflict to how this galaxy is perceived .
Check out thisultraviolet imageof the same helix taken back in 2005 by the GALEX Telescope . Perhaps thanks to the by all odds fuzzier image quality , NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory are nowhere near as effusive as ESA are today . In fact , they note that it has a “ with child face , ” which seems a bit mean .
[ H / T : ESA ]
