The Hubble Space Telescope’s latest image is one of its most beautiful ever. The eye-catching portrait of the peculiar spiral galaxy Arp 184, also known as NGC 1961, demonstrates the incredible depth and detail that make the 35-year-old Hubble> still such an enchanting space telescope.
Even as the relatively new $10 billion James Webb Space Telescope continues to churn out amazing images, the venerable Hubble still delivers old-school charm. Hubble’s distinctive diffraction spikes and color profile are timeless. Hubble’s latest photo of Arp 184 shows that it doesn’t need the latest and greatest camera technology to capture jaw-dropping images.
Located about 190 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation Camelopardalis (The Giraffe), Arp 194 (NGC 1961) is one of the “secular galaxies” compiled in astronomer Halton Arp’s Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies in 1966. The catalog comprises 338 galaxies that are, as NASA explains, “oddly shaped and tend to be neither entirely elliptical nor entirely spiral-shaped.” The Universe has plenty of unusual characters, and Arp 184 is among them.
While featured in Arp’s 1966 catalog, the galaxy is believed to have been discovered in 1788 by famed German-British astronomer William Herschel.
Arp 184 features a distinctive broad, star-filled spiral arm that appears to stretch toward the viewer, giving the galaxy unusual visual depth and a three-dimensional quality in photographs. The galaxy’s more distant side is much more sparse, featuring relatively small amounts of gas and few stars. It nonetheless has an impressive spiral arm, though.
Arp 184 is an attractive target for astronomers, thanks to playing host to four known supernovae in just the past three decades. Astronomers love observing supernovae because the fleeting astronomical events are a driving force in the creation of heavy elements and cosmic ingredients essential to life. Supernova explosions relate to everything on Earth, including life. For example, the iron in blood can be traced back to supernovae (or other similar cosmic events) in the Universe. Supernovae are also related to improving the scientific understanding of the Universe’s structure and its expansion.
Image credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton, R. J. Foley (UC Santa Cruz), C. Kilpatrick
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