Astronomers using the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a stunning new photograph of the medium-sized, face-on-spiral system NGC 6946.
This Hubble image shows the spiral arms and different star environments of NGC 6946. The color image was made from separate exposure in the infrared region of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Three filters were used to sample different wavelengths. Image Credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Leroy / KS Long.
NGC 6946 is about 18 million light-years away, along the boundary of the northern constellations Cepheus and Cygnus.
The galaxy is also known as LEDA 65001, UGC 11597 and APG 29 and has a diameter of 70,000 light-years.
NGC 6946 was discovered on 9 September 1798 by the German-born British astronomer William Herschel.
It is a member of the NGC 6946 group, which also includes several spiral and dwarf irregular galaxies.
“We can marvel at NGC 6946 because it’s a face-to-star system, which means we see the galaxy towards us, rather than seeing it from the side,” Hubble astronomers said.
“This galaxy is further classified as an intermediate spiral system and as a stellar galaxy.”
“The former means that the structure of NGC 6946 is between a full spiral and a barred spiral system, with only a slight bar in the middle, and the latter means that it has an extremely high rate of star formation.”
“In the past century alone, NGC 6946 has experienced ten observed supernovae, which have earned the nickname as the fireworks system,” they added.
“By comparison, our galaxy averages only 1-2 supernova events per century.”