Barred Galaxy (NGC 253) in Multiple Wavelengths

  • Released Monday, August 6, 2018
View full credits

NGC 253, characterized by its vigorous star formation and spiral dust lanes, reveals its underlying structure in multiple wavelengths.

In NGC 253, the visible-light view is complicated by the viewing angle, dark dust clouds, and scatterings of massive stars. Switching to the near-infrared lets us see the full population of stars more clearly, revealing a bar running through the center of the galaxy. Including mid-infrared also brings out the dust lanes clearly, and even highlights the areas where stars are forming vigorously, particularly in the galaxy's center.

Optical: Dust and bright stars confuse the view in visible light.
Near-Infrared: Dust lanes along the spiral arms glow in the mid-infrared.
Mid-Infrared: The base population of stars reveal the spiral arms and central bar.

This animation is the same as above, played twice as fast.

ESO optical image of the NGC 253 Dust and bright stars confuse the view in visible light.

ESO optical image of the NGC 253

Dust and bright stars confuse the view in visible light.

Spitzer Near-Infrared image of the NGC 253 The base population of stars reveal the spiral arms and central bar.

Spitzer Near-Infrared image of the NGC 253

The base population of stars reveal the spiral arms and central bar.

WISE image of the NGC 253 Dust lanes along the spiral arms glow in the mid-infrared.

WISE image of the NGC 253

Dust lanes along the spiral arms glow in the mid-infrared.

Credits

Please give credit for this item to:

Video: NASA, ESA, and G. Bacon (STScI)
Image Credits:

  • Optical: ESO
  • Near-infrared: NASA, JPL-Caltech, UCLA
  • Mid-infrared: NASA, JPL-Caltech, UCLA

This page was originally published on Monday, August 6, 2018.
This page was last updated on Wednesday, November 15, 2023 at 12:40 AM EST.

Missions

This visualization is related to the following missions:

Datasets used in this visualization

Note: While we identify the data sets used in these visualizations, we do not store any further details, nor the data sets themselves on our site.