Hubble Space Telescope Images Magellanic Spiral Galaxy

NASA has released a stunning new image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the little-known dwarf galaxy LEDA 42160.

LEDA 42160 is located approximately 53.5 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Virgo.

Otherwise known as MCG+02-32-161, VCC 1725, ALFALFA 3-327 or AGC 220849, this galaxy is a member of a massive cluster of galaxies called the Virgo cluster.

“LEDA 42160 is one of many forcing its way through the comparatively dense gas in the Virgo cluster,” the Hubble astronomers said.

“The pressure exerted by this intergalactic gas, known as ram pressure, has dramatic effects on star formation in LEDA 42160, which are presently being studied using Hubble.”

“LEDA 42160 falls into the category of Magellanic spiral galaxy, or type Sm for short, under the de Vaucouleurs galaxy classification system.”

“Magellanic spiral galaxies can be further sub-categorized as barred (SBm), unbarred (SAm) and weakly barred (SABm), where a ‘bar’ is an elongated bar-shape at a galaxy’s core.”

“Generally speaking, Magellanic spiral galaxies are dwarf galaxies with only one single spiral arm.”

“They are named after their prototype, the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is an SBm galaxy.”

“Magellanic spiral galaxies are an interesting example of how galaxy categorization is actually more nuanced than simply spiral, elliptical or irregular.”

The color image of LEDA 42160 is made up of observations from Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) in the near-infrared and optical parts of the spectrum.

Two filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.