NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has captured a stunning image of the grating galaxy NGC 612, which features alternating orange and blue colors. This new Hubble Space Telescope image is filled with striking orange and blue streaks. Hubble's visible and infrared capabilities captured an edge view of the grating galaxy NGC 612.
This Hubble Space Telescope image shows the unique lensed galaxy NGC 612, known for its significant radio emission. This galaxy is located in the constellation Sculptor. Astronomers study this galaxy 400 million light-years away to understand the secrets of radio wave emission in the galaxy. Image credit: NASA Hubble Space Telescope, ESA, A. Barth (University of California, Irvine) and B. Boizelle (Brigham Young University); Image processing: Gladys Kober (NASA, University of California, Irvine): Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
The central bulge and disk of lenticular galaxies resemble those of spiral galaxies, but they lack the characteristic arms. They typically have older star populations with few stars currently forming. In NGC 612, dust and cold hydrogen make up most of the galaxy's disk, the orange and dark red planes of matter we see. This galaxy is located in the constellation of the Sculptor and is easily visible from Earth's southern hemisphere.
NGC 612 is an active galaxy, meaning its center is more than 100 times brighter than the combined brightness of its stars. It is also a Seyfert galaxy, the most common type of active galaxy, which emits large amounts of infrared radiation despite appearing normal in visible light. NGC 612 is a Type II Seyfert galaxy, which means that the material near the center of the galaxy moves very quietly around the galaxy's core. The stars in this galaxy are unusually young, ranging in age from about 40 to 100 million years.
NGC 612 is also an extremely rare example of a non-elliptical radio galaxy, a type of galaxy that displays significant radio emission - in this case, it is associated with radio source PKS0131-36. Astronomers have discovered only five such radio-emitting lensing galaxies in the universe. One theory suggests that NGC 612's unusual radio emissions are caused by past interactions with a companion galaxy. Another theory suggests that NGC 612's radio emissions are similar to bulges in elliptical radio galaxies. By imaging this galaxy, astronomers hope to discover more about why the galaxy emits radio waves.
British astronomer John Herschel discovered NGC 612 in 1837. It is about 400 million light-years away from Earth and has a mass of about 1.1 trillion times that of the Sun.