Hubble Space Telescope Looks at Flocculent Spiral: NGC 2090

Nov 25, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro


Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured an amazing new photo of the spiral galaxy NGC 2090.



This Hubble image shows NGC 2090, a spiral galaxy some 40 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Columba. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the ultraviolet, visible and near-infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). It is based on data obtained through six filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Thilker.


NGC 2090 is a spiral galaxy located in the southern constellation of Columba.

Also known as ESO 363-23, IRAS 05452-3416 or LEDA 17819, it was discovered on October 29, 1826 by the Scottish astronomer James Dunlop.

“NGC 2090 is notable as a part of the group of galaxies studied in Hubble’s Extragalactic Distance Scale Key Project, which aimed to determine a new state-of-the-art value for the Hubble constant, one of the then-new telescope’s primary science goals,” the Hubble astronomers said in a statement.

“The contribution of NGC 2090 was in calibrating the Tully-Fisher (TF) distance method, by observing Cepheid variable stars in the galaxy.”

“The Cepheid-based measurement from that study in 1998 put NGC 2090 as 37 million light-years away.”

More:
https://www.sci.news/astronomy/hubble-flocculent-spiral-ngc-2090-13449.html