Hubble Sees Stunning Face-On Spiral Galaxy: NGC 2835

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Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have produced a spectacularly detailed image of NGC 2835, a face-on intermediate spiral galaxy with multiple spiral arms.

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This Hubble image shows NGC 2835, an intermediate spiral galaxy approximately 28.5 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). It is based on data obtained through five filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Lee / PHANGS-HST Team / Judy Schmidt, www.geckzilla.com.

NGC 2835 is located 28.5 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Hydra.

Also known as ESO 564-35, LEDA 26259 and UGCA 157, the galaxy was discovered by the German astronomer Wilhelm Tempel on April 13, 1884.

NGC 2835 is about 65,000 light-years across, just over half the size of our own Milky Way Galaxy.

The galaxy is the foremost member of the NGC 2835 group, a small cluster of galaxies that also includes ESO 497-035 and ESO 565-001.

Although it cannot be seen in the new Hubble image, a supermassive black hole with a mass between 3 and 10 million solar masses is known to nestle in the center of NGC 2835.

“NGC 2835 was imaged as part of PHANGS-HST (Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby GalaxieS), a large galaxy survey with Hubble that aims to study the connections between cold gas and young stars in a variety of galaxies in the local Universe,” Hubble astronomers said.

“Within NGC 2835, this cold, dense gas produces large numbers of young stars within large star formation regions.”

“The bright blue areas, commonly observed in the outer spiral arms of many galaxies, show where near-ultraviolet light is being emitted more strongly, indicating recent or ongoing star formation,” they added.

“Expected to image over 100,000 gas clouds and star-forming regions outside the Milky Way, this survey hopes to uncover and clarify many of the links between cold gas clouds, star formation and the overall shape and morphology of galaxies.”