Hubble’s high-resolution Advanced Camera for Surveys captures fine detail in spiral galaxy LEDA 89996 in a view that measures just 0.84 x 0.82 arcminutes — approx. 1/72 x 1/72 degree. Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA. Acknowledgement: Flickr user c.claude.This little-known galaxy, officially named J04542829-6625280, but most often referred to as LEDA 89996, is a classic example of a spiral galaxy. The galaxy is much like our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The disc-shaped galaxy is seen face on, revealing the winding structure of the spiral arms. Dark patches in these spiral arms are in fact dust and gas — the raw materials for new stars. The many young stars that form in these regions make the spiral arms appear bright and bluish.
The galaxy sits in a vibrant area of the night sky within the constellation of Dorado (The Swordfish), and appears very close to the Large Magellanic Cloud — one of the satellite galaxies of the Milky Way.
The observations were carried out with the high resolution channel of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. This instrument has delivered some of the sharpest views of the Universe so far achieved by mankind. This image covers only a tiny patch of sky — about the size of a one cent Euro coin held 100 metres away!
Our 5 billion-year-old Sun missed the stellar “baby boom” that erupted in our young Milky Way galaxy 10 billion years ago. During that time the Milky Way was churning out stars 30 times faster than it does today.
On April 24, 1990, the Space Shuttle Discovery achieved orbit with the Hubble Space Telescope in its payload bay. Since then, the HST has been serviced and upgraded five times, giving scientists the means to look farther out into the universe in greater detail and father back in time than ever before.
The Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 captured an image of a massive galaxy cluster some six billion light years from Earth, part of a program to find targets for the James Webb Space Telescope.
