The NASA Hubble Space Telescope recently captured a photo of a spiral galaxy after 20 years since its first encounter to it. The said spiral galaxy is the NGC 2903, which has a resemblance to the famous Milky Way.
NASA Hubble Space Telescope Captures NGC 2903 Spiral Galaxy
The NASA Hubble Space Telescope snapped a higher resolution image of the NGC 2903. Through the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), Hubble was able to take an image of the said spiral galaxy, per NASA.
In addition to this, the equipment WFC3 and ACS were installed in 2002 and 2009.
As of writing, the image posted by NASA on Twitter has more than 1,500 likes and about 220 retweets.
For background information, Hubble has discovered NGC 2903 in 2001. The said discovery occurred before the installation of the WFC3 and ACS, so it captured a decent image but not a high-resolution one. Luckily, the recent image that the Hubble took gave a better look at the spiral galaxy. Through this, the NGC 2903 has shown more of its details as compared to the image taken in 2001.
Because the ACS and WFC3 cover a wide range of optical, infrared wavelengths, and ultraviolet, the 2021 image of NGC 2903 has improved the wavelength coverage than its 20-year-old predecessor. In relation to this, Hubble's Wide Field Planetary Camera 2 (WFPC2) captured the 2001 NGC 2903 image.
From 1993 to 2009, the WFPC2 was the workhorse instrument of NASA Hubble. After 2009, the latest WFC3 replaced the WFPC2.
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NGC 2903: Everything You Must Know
According to ESA Hubble, NGC 2903 spiral galaxy that resembles the Milky Way, which is believed to be a barred spiral galaxy.
For those wondering what a barred spiral galaxy is, National School Observatory stated that it has a central bar-shaped structure which is composed of stars. Bars appear to affect the motions of dust, stars and gas in almost half of all spiral galaxies. It is believed that the bars act as a funnel by dragging the matter into the bulge from the disk. With his fact, it leads to central bursts of star formation as a result.
Moreover, NGC 2903 is located 20 million light-years away from Earth. Aside from this, this spiral galaxy shines in the northern constellation of Leo, which is near the top of the lion's head, per NASA. The area of the constellation is often displayed as a sickle or a reversed question mark. In addition, NGC 2903 is one of the brighter galaxies visible from the northern hemisphere, however, it is not part of the list of dazzling celestial sights by Charles Messier.
On the other hand, the NASA Hubble Space Telescope has also captured a creepy giant spiderweb in space, as previously reported. Since Halloween is right around the corner, Hubble has released video content that features eight interesting and creepy celestial sights. Among those showcased celestial sights are twin galaxy eyes, a terrifying ghost nebula, an angry cat's eye, spine-chilling red spider and more.
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