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This glittering picture reveals the spiral galaxy IC 5332, which lies about 30 million light-years away within the constellation Sculptor, and has an virtually face-on orientation to Earth.
To elucidate what is supposed by ‘face-on’, it’s useful to visualise a spiral galaxy as an (extraordinarily) giant disc. If the galaxy is oriented in order that it seems round and disc-shaped from our perspective right here on Earth, then we will say that it’s ‘face-on’.
In distinction, whether it is oriented in order that it seems squashed and oval-shaped, then we might say that it’s ‘edge-on’. The important thing factor is that the identical galaxy would look extraordinarily completely different from our perspective relying on whether or not it was face-on or edge-on as seen from Earth. Take a look at these earlier Hubble Footage of the Week for examples of one other face-on spiral galaxy and an virtually edge-on spiral galaxy.
IC 5332 is designated as an SABc-type galaxy within the De Vaucouleurs system of galaxy classification. The ‘S’ is easy, figuring out it as a spiral galaxy, which it clearly is, given the well-defined arms of brilliant stars and darker mud that curl outwards from the galaxy’s dense and brilliant core.
The ‘AB’ is a bit more advanced. It signifies that the galaxy is weakly barred, which refers back to the form of the galaxy’s centre. Nearly all of spiral galaxies don’t spiral out from a single level, however fairly from an elongated bar-type construction. SAB galaxies — that are also referred to as intermediate spiral galaxies — should not have a transparent bar-shape at their core, but additionally don’t spiral out from a single level, as a substitute falling someplace in between.
The lowercase ‘c’ describes how tightly wound the spiral arms are: ‘a’ would point out very tightly wound, and ‘d’ very loosely wound. Thus, IC 5332 is kind of an intermediate spiral galaxy on many fronts: weakly barred, with fairly loosely wound arms, and virtually fully face-on!
[Image Description: A close-in view of a spiral galaxy. It is seen face-on, showing its circular shape and tightly winding spiral arms. The galaxy glows brightly in the centre and dims to cool colours towards the edge. Dark, faint filaments of dust and brightly glowing, pink and orange bubbles of star formation mark the face of the galaxy.]
Credit score:
ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST crew
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