Subaru telescope captures inclined spiral galaxy | Science News

The Subaru Telescope captured an image of NGC 748, a barred spiral galaxy 190 million light-years away in Cetus. The spiral galaxy is tilted from the vantage point of the Earth.

NGC 748 captured by the Subaru Telescope. (Image Credit: NAOJ; Image provided by Masayuki Tanaka).

New Delhi: The Subaru telescope has captured an image of the barred spiral galaxy designated as NGC 748, at a distance of about 190 million lightyears from the Earth in the constellation of Cetus. The Galaxy was discovered by William Herschel in 1784, and catalogued long before scientists developed the concept of galaxies in the mid 20th century. The galaxy has well-defined spiral arms and is tilted or inclined from the vantage point of the Earth, oriented between an edge-on spiral galaxy and a face-on spiral galaxy.

The tilted galaxies clearly illustrate the fact that the stellar disks are think compared to the diameters in spiral galaxies. There are stellar nurseries vigorously producing new stars in the fringes of the galaxy. These energetic young stars are particularly bright in ultraviolet frequencies, resulting in the bluish populations in the outer reaches of the spiral galaxy. Towards the core of the galaxy are older, redder stars. NGC 748 also features a central bar, which is believed to play a role in the transport of gas and dust towards the supermassive black hole occupying the core of the galaxy.

Galaxy arms are merely density patterns

Astronomers have long been puzzled by what exactly causes a spiral galaxy to form arms, which is known as the winding problem. Conventional understanding is that the spiral arms are not physical structures, but density patterns formed by stars moving around the core, similar to cars in traffic. The individual stars move in and out of the spiral arms as they all rotate the core of the galaxy. NGC 748 is sitting in a field of even more distant galaxies of all shapes and sizes, in all orientations, edge-on, face-on and tilted. The Subaru Telescope is a 8.2-meter optical-infrared telescope on the summit of Maunakea in Hawaii operated by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan.

Aditya has studied journalism, multimedia technologies and ᚨᚾᚲᛁᛖᚾᛏ ᚱᚢᚾᛖᛋ. He has over 10 years experience as a science and technology reporter, with a focus on space, AI, videogames, cybsersecurity and fundamental research. He is usually found playing with age inappropriate LEGO sets or sedentary games both new and old.

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