NGC 5866

 

 

이 사진은 우리가 바라보는 방향으로 거의 완벽하게 모서리를 보이고 있는 원반은하 NGC 5866을 허블우주망원경이 촬영한 것이다.

이 고해상도 이미지에는 은하의 먼지대역이 은하를 양분하고 있는 모습이 선명하게 나타나 있다.

이 사진은 은하의 구조를 선명하게 보여주는 매우 인상적인 사진으로서 밝은 은하핵을 불룩하게 둘러싸고 있는 미묘한 붉은 빛과, 먼지대역과 평행하게 늘어서 있는 별들로 구성된 푸른 원반, 외곽을 둘러싸고 있는 투명한 헤일로가 잘 나타나 있다.

은하원반으로부터 떨어져 나와 은하중심의 불룩한 부분이나, 은하를 둘러싸고 있는 헤일로로 빠져나가고 있는 희미한 먼지궤적도 보인다.

외곽부의 헤일로에서는 구상성단으로 알려져 있는 백만여 개의 별들이 상호중력으로 뭉쳐있는 수많은 성단들이 점점이 보인다.

헤일로 사이로 NGC 5866보다 수백만 광년에서 수십억 광년 더 떨어져 있는 머나먼 은하들이 배경으로 보이고 있다.  

 

 

출처 : The European Homepage for The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope
http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/html/opo0624a.html

 

참고 :  NGC 5866을 비롯한 각종 은하 및 은하단에 대한 포스팅은 하기 링크 INDEX를 통해 확인할 수 있습니다.
          - 은하 일반 :  https://big-crunch.tistory.com/12346976
          - 은하단 및 은하그룹 :  https://big-crunch.tistory.com/12346978
          - 은하 충돌 :  https://big-crunch.tistory.com/12346977

 

원문>

ACS Image of NGC 5866

This is a unique NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope view of the disk galaxy NGC 5866 tilted nearly edge-on to our line-of-sight.

Hubble's sharp vision reveals a crisp dust lane dividing the galaxy into two halves. The image highlights the galaxy's structure: a subtle, reddish bulge surrounding a bright nucleus, a blue disk of stars running parallel to the dust lane, and a transparent outer halo.

Some faint, wispy trails of dust can be seen meandering away from the disk of the galaxy out into the bulge and inner halo of the galaxy. The outer halo is dotted with numerous gravitationally bound clusters of nearly a million stars each, known as globular clusters. Background galaxies that are millions to billions of light-years farther away than NGC 5866 are also seen through the halo.

 

Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team STScI/AURA)