Astronomers using the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope produced a spectacularly detailed image of part of the spiral system NGC 4603.
This Hubble image shows NGC 4603, a spiral system about 107 million light-years away in the constellation of Centaurus. Image Credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / J. Maund.
NGC 4603 is located approximately 107 million light-years away in the constellation Centaurus.
This galaxy was discovered on 8 June 1834 by the English astronomer John Herschel.
Otherwise known as ESO 322-52, IRAS 12382-4042 and LEDA 42510, it has a diameter of 110,000 light-years.
NGC 4603 is a member of the Centaurus group of galaxies, a group of more than 100 galaxies.
The galaxy is classified as SA (s) c, meaning it is a purely spiral galaxy with relatively loose arms.
“Bright bands of blue young stars form the arms of NGC 4603, which curl outward from the light core,” Hubble astronomers said.
“The intricate reddish-brown filaments that run through the spiral arms are known as dust orbits and consist of dense dust clouds that obscure the diffuse starlight of the galaxy.”
“NGC 4603 is a familiar topic for Hubble,” they added.
“In the last years of the twentieth century, the galaxy has been closely and closely watched for signs of a peculiar class of stars known as Cepheid variables.”
“These stars have a luminosity that is closely linked to the period in which they darken and illuminate, so that astronomers can accurately measure how far they are from Earth.”
“Distance measurements of Cepheid variables are the key to measuring the farthest distances in the Universe, and were one of the factors used by Georges Lemaître and Edwin Hubble to show that the Universe is expanding.”