Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) has taken a striking new image of the grand design spiral galaxy NGC 5248.
NGC 5248 lies approximately 42 million light-years away in the constellation of Boötes.
Otherwise known as Caldwell 45, LEDA 48130, UGC 8616, IRAS 13353+0908 and TC 830, this spiral galaxy has a diameter of 95,000 light-years.
First discovered by the German-born British astronomer William Herschel on April 15, 1784, it is a member of the NGC 5248 group of galaxies.
NGC 5248 has an apparent magnitude of 10 and can be spotted using a small telescope, though it won’t appear very bright.
The galaxy is notable for its nuclear rings with ‘hot spots’ of starburst activity.
“NGC 5248 is one of the so-called ‘grand design’ spirals, with prominent spiral arms that reach from near the core out through the disk,” Hubble astronomers said in a statement.
“It also has a faint bar structure in the center, between the inner ends of the spiral arms, which is not quite so obvious in this visible-light portrait from Hubble.”
“Features like these which break the rotational symmetry of a galaxy have a huge influence on how matter moves through it, and eventually its evolution through time.”
“They feed gas from a galaxy’s outer reaches to inner star-forming regions, and even to a galaxy’s central black hole where it can kick-start an active galactic nucleus.”
“These flows of gas have shaped NGC 5248 in a big way; it has many bright regions of intense star formation spread across its disk, and it is dominated by a population of young stars.”
“The galaxy even has two very active, ring-shaped starburst regions around its nucleus, filled with young clusters of stars.”
“These ‘nuclear rings’ are remarkable enough, but normally a nuclear ring tends to block gas from getting further into the core of a galaxy.”
“NGC 5248 having a second ring inside the first is a marker of just how forceful its flows of matter and energy are.”
“Its relatively nearby, highly visible starburst regions make the galaxy a target for professional and amateur astronomers alike.”
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