ScienceDaily (June 19, 2012) ? The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a new view of the dwarf galaxy UGC 5497, which looks a bit like salt sprinkled on black velvet in the image.
The object is a compact blue dwarf galaxy that is infused with newly formed clusters of stars. The bright, blue stars that arise in these clusters help to give the galaxy an overall bluish appearance that lasts for several million years until these fast-burning stars explode as supernovae.
UGC 5497 is considered part of the M 81 group of galaxies, which is located about 12 million light-years away in the constellation Ursa Major (The Great Bear). UGC 5497 turned up in a ground-based telescope survey back in 2008 looking for new dwarf galaxy candidates associated with Messier 81.
According to the leading cosmological theory of galaxy formation, called Lambda Cold Dark Matter, there should be far more satellite dwarf galaxies associated with big galaxies like the Milky Way and Messier 81 than are currently known. Finding previously overlooked objects such as this one has helped cut into the expected tally -- but only by a small amount.
Astrophysicists therefore remain puzzled over the so-called "missing satellite" problem.
The field of view in this image, which is a combination of visible and infrared exposures from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys, is approximately 3.4 by 3.4 arcminutes.
Share this story on Facebook, Twitter, and Google:
Other social bookmarking and sharing tools:
Story Source:
The above story is reprinted from materials provided by NASA.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.
Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.
Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.
nick swisher jaco san jose sharks humber perfect game ufc 145 fight card ufc145 chimpanzee
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.