(click on image to enlarge)
From NASA/ESA, August 22, 2022:
The galaxy featured in this Picture of the Week has a shape unlike many of the galaxies familiar to Hubble. Its thousands of bright stars evoke a spiral galaxy,
but it lacks the characteristic ‘winding’ structure. The shining red
blossoms stand out as well, twisted by clouds of dust — these are the
locations of intense star formation. Yet it also radiates a diffuse
glow, much like an elliptical galaxy and its core of older, redder stars. This galactic marvel is known to astronomers as NGC 1156.
NGC 1156 is located around 25 million light-years from Earth, in the
constellation Aries. It has a variety of different features that are of
interest to astronomers. A dwarf
irregular galaxy, it’s also classified as isolated, meaning no other
galaxies are nearby enough to influence its odd shape and continuing
star formation. The extreme energy of freshly formed young stars gives
colour to the galaxy, against the red glow of ionised hydrogen gas,
while its centre is densely-packed with older generations of stars.
Hubble has captured NGC 1156 before
— this new image features data from a galactic gap-filling programme
simply titled “Every Known Nearby Galaxy”. Astronomers noticed that only
three quarters of the galaxies within just over 30 million light-years
of Earth had been observed by Hubble in sufficient detail to study the
makeup of the stars within them. They proposed that in between larger
projects, Hubble could take snapshots of the remaining quarter —
including NGC 1156. Gap-filling programmes like this one ensure that the
best use is made of Hubble’s valuable observing time.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. B. Tully, R. Jansen, R. Windhorst
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ALERT: NASA is scheduled to launch the Artemis I mission to the Moon on Monday morning:
Artemis I, formerly Exploration Mission-1, will be the first
integrated test of NASA’s deep space exploration systems: the Orion
spacecraft, Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and the ground systems at
Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The first in a series
of increasingly complex missions, Artemis I will be an uncrewed flight
test that will provide a foundation for human deep space exploration,
and demonstrate our commitment and capability to extend human existence
to the Moon and beyond.
During this flight, the spacecraft will launch on the most powerful
rocket in the world and fly farther than any spacecraft built for humans
has ever flown. It will travel 280,000 miles from Earth, thousands of
miles beyond the Moon over the course of about a four to six-week
mission. Orion will stay in space longer than any ship for astronauts
has done without docking to a space station and return home faster and
hotter than ever before...
Launch is scheduled during a window between 8:33 a.m. and 10:33 a.m. ET, barring delays.
