tagged with: star clusters, breathtaking astronomy images, european southern observatory, inspirational, star forming regions, young blue stars, galactic arms, heavens, spiral galaxies, hrbstslr spgxy1232, eso, vista
Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A fantastic astronomy image featuring a little of the wonder that is our universe.
This spectacular image of the large spiral galaxy NGC 1232 was obtained on September 21, 1998, during a period of good observing conditions. It is based on three exposures in ultra-violet, blue and red light, respectively. The colours of the different regions are well visible : the central areas contain older stars of reddish colour, while the spiral arms are populated by young, blue stars and many star-forming regions. Note the distorted companion galaxy on the left side, shaped like the greek letter "theta".
NGC 1232 is located 20º south of the celestial equator, in the constellation Eridanus (The River). The distance is about 100 million light-years, but the excellent optical quality of the VLT and FORS allows us to see an incredible wealth of details.
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image code: spgxy253
ESO/J. Emerson/VISTA www.eso.org
Reproduced under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
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