Hubble takes gigantic image of the Triangulum Galaxy
This new image of the Triangulum Galaxy — also known as Messier 33 or NGC 598 — has a staggering 665 million pixels and showcases the central region of the galaxy and its inner spiral arms. To stitch together this gigantic mosaic, Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys needed to create 54 separate images.
Under excellent dark-sky conditions, the Triangulum Galaxy can be seen with the naked eye as a faint, blurry object in the constellation of Triangulum (the Triangle), where its ethereal glow is an exciting target for amateur astronomers.
At only three million light-years from Earth, the Triangulum Galaxy is a notable member of the Local Group — it is the group’s third-largest galaxy, but also the smallest spiral galaxy in the group [1]. It measures only about 60 000 light-years across, compared to the 200 000 light-years of the Andromeda Galaxy; the Milky Way lies between these extremes at about 100 000 light-years in diameter [2].
The Triangulum Galaxy is not only surpassed in size by the other two spirals, but by the multitude of stars they contain. The Triangulum Galaxy has at least an order of magnitude less stars than the Milky Way and two orders of magnitude less than Andromeda. These numbers are hard to grasp when already in this image 10 to 15 million individual stars are visible.
In contrast to the two larger spirals, the Triangulum Galaxy doesn’t have a bright bulge at its centre and it also lacks a bar connecting its spiral arms to the centre. It does, however, contain a huge amount of gas and dust, giving rise to rapid star formation. New stars form at a rate of approximately one solar mass every two years.
The abundance of gas clouds in the Triangulum Galaxy is precisely what drew astronomers to conduct this detailed survey. When stars are born, they use up material in these clouds of gas and dust, leaving less fuel for new stars to emerge. Hubble’s image shows two of the four brightest of these regions in the galaxy: NGC 595 and NGC 604. The latter is the second most luminous region of ionised hydrogen within the Local Group and it is also among the largest known star formation regions in the Local Group.
These detailed observations of the Triangulum Galaxy have tremendous legacy value — combined with those of the Milky Way, the Andromeda Galaxy and the irregular Magellanic Cloud galaxies, they will help astronomers to better understand star formation and stellar evolution.
Notes
[1] Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is part of the Local Group, an assembly of more than 50 galaxies bound together by gravity. Its largest member is the Andromeda Galaxy — also known as Messier 31 — followed by the Milky Way and the Triangulum Galaxy. The remaining members of the Local Group are dwarf galaxies, each orbiting one of the three larger ones.
[2] The much bigger Andromeda Galaxy was mapped by Hubble in 2015, creating the sharpest and largest image of this galaxy and the largest Hubble image ever (heic1502).
The sharpest view ever of the Triangulum Galaxy
This gigantic image of the Triangulum Galaxy — also known as Messier 33 — is a composite of about 54 different pointings with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. With a staggering size of 34 372 times 19 345 pixels, it is the second-largest image ever released by Hubble. It is only dwarfed by the image of the Andromeda Galaxy, released in 2015.
The mosaic of the Triangulum Galaxy showcases the central region of the galaxy and its inner spiral arms. Millions of stars, hundreds of star clusters and bright nebulae are visible. This image is too large to be easily displayed at full resolution and is best appreciated using the zoom tool.
Credit:
NASA, ESA, and M. Durbin, J. Dalcanton, and B. F. Williams (University of Washington)
NGC 604 — a gigantic gas cloud in the Triangulum Galaxy
This image shows NGC 604, located within the Triangulum Galaxy. Some 1500 light-years across, this is one of the largest, brightest concentrations of ionised hydrogen (H II) in our Local Group of galaxies, and it is a major centre of star formation.
The gas in NGC 604, around nine-tenths of which is hydrogen, is gradually collapsing under the force of gravity to create new stars. Once these stars have formed, the energetic ultraviolet radiation they emit excites the remaining gas in the cloud.
This image is only a tiny part of the large wide-field image of the Triangulum Galaxy created by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Hubble has observed this object before, with different cameras: In 2003, using the WFPC2 and in 2010, using the ACS. The different colours in the images have their origin in the different filters being used.
Credit:
NASA, ESA, and M. Durbin, J. Dalcanton, and B. F. Williams (University of Washington)
NGC 595 — a diffuse nebula in the Triangulum Galaxy
NGC 595 is is a gigantic region of ionised hydrogen in the Triangulum Galaxy, about three million light-years away.
The nebula was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Ludwig d'Arrest on 1 October 1864.
This image is only a tiny part of the large wide-field image of the Triangulum Galaxy created by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Credit:
The nebula was discovered by the German astronomer Heinrich Ludwig d'Arrest on 1 October 1864.
This image is only a tiny part of the large wide-field image of the Triangulum Galaxy created by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Credit:
NASA, ESA, and M. Durbin, J. Dalcanton, and B. F. Williams (University of Washington)
Stellar association IC 142
IC 142 is a region of ionised hydrogen and a large stellar
association in the Triangulum Galaxy. A stellar association is a very
loose cluster of stars that share a common origin, but have become
gravitationally unbound and are slowly moving apart. Associations are
primarily identified by their common movement vectors and ages.
The region IC 142 was discovered on 28 October 1889 by astronomer Guillaume Bigourdan.
This image is only a tiny part of the large wide-field image of the Triangulum Galaxy created by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Credit:
The region IC 142 was discovered on 28 October 1889 by astronomer Guillaume Bigourdan.
This image is only a tiny part of the large wide-field image of the Triangulum Galaxy created by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
Credit:
NASA, ESA, and M. Durbin, J. Dalcanton, and B. F. Williams (University of Washington)
Wide-field view of the Triangulum Galaxy showing the extent of the survey
This wide-field view shows the Triangulum Galaxy — also known as
Messier 33 — as seen from the ground. The extent of the new huge mosaic
created with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is shown by the
irregularly shaped region and the main image presented here by the
rectangle within it.
Credit:
Credit:
NASA, ESA, Digitized Sky Survey 2.
Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin
Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin
Area around the Triangulum Galaxy (ground-based image)
This wide-field view of the sky around the nearby galaxy Messier 33 was assembled from images forming part of the Digitized Sky Survey 2. The original photographs were taken over a period spanning more than 40 years, from 1949 until the early 1990s. As a result, some of the nearer stars in the picture have moved as a result of their significant proper motions. These show up as double dots — one red and one blue. The huge galaxy at the centre of the picture is tens or hundreds of thousands of times more distant than these nearby stars.
Credit:
ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin
VIDEOS
Hubblecast 115 Light: Triangulum Galaxy in unrivalled detail
The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured the most detailed image yet of a the Triangulum Galaxy, a spiral galaxy located at a distance of only three million light-years. The image of our cosmic neighbour is the second largest image ever created with Hubble data.
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Many other Hubblecast episodes are also available.
Find out how to view and contribute subtitles for the Hubblecast in multiple languages, or translate this video on YouTube.
Credit:
Directed by: Mathias Jäger
Editing: Nico Bartmann
Web and technical support: Mathias André and Raquel Yumi Shida
Written by: Ivana Kurecic
Music: tonelabs (http://www.tonelabs.com)
Footage and photos: NASA, ESA, M. Durbin, J. Dalcanton, and B. F. Williams (University of Washington), ESO/S. Brunier, Digitized Sky Survey 2
Executive producer: Lars Lindberg Christensen
Zooming in on the Triangulum Galaxy
This video journey takes the viewer on a three-million-light-year
trip to the Triangulum Galaxy, Messier 33. The final view, from the
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is the most detailed wide-field view of
this object ever obtained and shows the many glowing gas clouds in the
spiral arms with particular clarity.
Credit:
Credit:
ESA, ESO, DSS, NASA, Risinger.
Music: Astral Electronic
Music: Astral Electronic
A close-up look at the Triangulum Galaxy
This video sequence gives a detailed close-up view of the Triangulum
Galaxy, also known as Messier 33. The beautiful picture of this nearby
spiral, the second-closest large galaxy to our own, was captured by the
NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The image is packed with bright star
clusters and clouds of gas and dust. This picture is the most detailed
wide-field view of this object ever taken and shows the many glowing gas
clouds in the spiral arms with particular clarity.
Credit:
Credit:
ESA/Hubble, NASA
Fuente:ESA/Hubble Information Centre
Fuente:ESA/Hubble Information Centre
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