The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has delivered an unrivalled snapshot of the spiral galaxy UGC 11860.
This Hubble image shows UGC 11860, a spiral galaxy located some 184 million light-years away in the constellation of Pegasus. The color image is made up of observations from Hubble’s WFC3 camera in the ultraviolet, near-infrared, and optical parts of the spectrum. It is based on data obtained through three filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Filippenko / J.D. Lyman.
UGC 11860 is a spiral galaxy in the northern constellation of Pegasus.
Also referred to as LEDA 67733 and MCG+04-51-014 in various astronomical catalogues, it lies at an estimated distance of 184 million light-years from Earth.
In 2014, a Type II supernova event called ASASSN-14dq was detected in UGC 11860 by a robotic telescope dedicated to scouring the skies for transient astronomical phenomena.
“The untroubled appearance of UGC 11860 can be deceiving,” Hubble astronomers said.
“This galaxy recently played host to an almost unimaginably energetic stellar explosion.”
Two different research teams used Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) to search through the aftermath and unpick the lingering remnants of ASASSN-14dq.
One team explored UGC 11860 to understand more about the progenitor star systems that eventually meet their demise in supernovae.
“The unimaginably energetic environment during supernova explosions is predominantly responsible for forging the elements between silicon and nickel on the periodic table,” the astronomers explained.
“This means that understanding the influence of progenitor star systems’ masses and compositions is vital to explaining how many of the chemical elements here on Earth originated.”
The other team used the WFC3 instrument to follow up ASASSN-14dq and other supernovae that were detected by robotic telescopes.
“These automated eyes on the sky function without the intervention of humans, and capture transient events in the night sky,” the researchers said.
“Robotic telescopes allow us to detect everything from unexpected asteroids to rare, unpredictable supernovae, and can identify intriguing objects that can then be investigated in more detail by powerful telescopes such as Hubble.
Source : Breaking Science News