Hubble Spies Swirling Spiral – NASA

The swirling spiral galaxy in this image of the NASA / ESA Hubble space telescope is NGC 3285B, which resides at 137 million light years in the Hydra constellation (the water snake). Hydra has the largest area of the 88 constellations that cover the whole sky in a celestial patchwork. It is also the longest constellation, extending to 100 degrees in the sky. It would take nearly 200 complete moons, placed side by side, to reach one side of the constellation to the other.

NGC 3285B is a member of the Hydra I cluster, one of the largest clusters of galaxies in the neighboring universe. Galaxy clusters are hundreds of hundreds to thousands of galaxies linked to each other by gravity. The Hydra I cluster is anchored by two giant elliptical galaxies in its center. Each of these galaxies has around 150,000 light years in diameter, which makes them around 50% larger than our domestic galaxy, the Milky Way.

NGC 3285B is on the outskirts of its group of houses, far from the massive galaxies of the center. This galaxy caught Hubble’s attention because it hosted an IA type supernova in 2023. The IA supernovae occur when a type of stellar nucleus condensed called white dwarf explodes, triggering a sudden gust of nuclear fusion which briefly about 5 billion times brighter than the sun. The supernova, named SN 2023xqm, is visible here as a bluish point on the left edge of the disc of the galaxy.

Hubble observed NGC 3285B as part of an observation program that targeted 100 IA type supernovae. By looking at each of these supernovae in an ultraviolet, optical and infrared light, the researchers aim to disentangle the effects of distance and dust, which can both make a supernova more red than it is really. This program will help refine the cosmic distance measures based on the observations of IA type supernovae.

Text credit: ESA / Hubble