Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1300
影像提供: Hubble Heritage Team, ESA, NASA
Explanation:
Big, beautiful, barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300 lies some 70 million light-years away on the banks of the constellation Eridanus. This Hubble Space Telescope composite view of the gorgeous island universe is one of the largest Hubble images ever made of a complete galaxy. NGC 1300 spans over 100,000 light-years and the Hubble image reveals striking details of the galaxy's dominant central bar and majestic spiral arms. In fact, on close inspection the nucleus of this classic barred spiral itself shows a remarkable region of spiral structure about 3,000 light-years across. Unlike other spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, NGC 1300 is not presently known to have a massive central black hole.
說明:
美麗巨大的棒旋星系NGC 1300位在波江座內，距離我們約有七千萬光年遠。由哈伯太空望遠鏡所拍攝的這個壯麗宇宙島之組合影像，是哈伯望遠鏡完整星系影像集裡最大的數張之一。NGC 1300的大小超過十萬光年，這幅哈伯望遠鏡影像呈現了這個星系大型中心棒狀結構及壯麗漩渦臂的細部結構。在仔細檢視之下，可以發現這個典型的星系之棒狀核心，有個大小約為3300光年的奇妙旋螺結構。與和其他螺旋星系及我們銀河系的差異在於，到現在為止，我們還沒有在NGC 1300找到超大質量的核心黑洞。
資料來源: Scientific American
Department of Physics, NCKU
