File:A galactic traffic jam (49627044762).jpg
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DescriptionA galactic traffic jam (49627044762).jpg |
The barred spiral galaxy NGC 3887, seen here as viewed by the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, lies over 60 million light-years away from us in the southern constellation of Crater (The Cup); it was discovered on 31 December 1785 by the German/British astronomer William Herschel. Its orientation to us, while not exactly face-on, allows us to see NGC 3887’s spiral arms and central bulge in detail, making it an ideal target for studying a spiral galaxy’s winding arms and the stars within them. The very existence of spiral arms was for a long time a problem for astronomers. The arms emanate from a spinning core and should therefore become wound up ever more tightly, causing them to eventually disappear after a (cosmologically) short amount of time. It was only in the 1960s that astronomers came up with the solution to this winding problem; rather than behaving like rigid structures, spiral arms are in fact areas of greater density in a galaxy’s disc, with dynamics similar to those of a traffic jam. The density of cars moving through a traffic jam increases at the centre of the jam, where they move more slowly. Spiral arms function in a similar way; as gas and dust move through the density waves they become compressed and linger, before moving out of them again. Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, P. Erwin et al.; <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" rel="noreferrer nofollow">CC BY 4.0</a> |
Date | |
Source | A galactic traffic jam |
Author | European Space Agency |
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This image was originally posted to Flickr by europeanspaceagency at https://flickr.com/photos/37472264@N04/49627044762. It was reviewed on 3 December 2020 by FlickreviewR 2 and was confirmed to be licensed under the terms of the cc-by-2.0. |
3 December 2020
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Date and time of data generation | 06:00, 2 March 2020 |
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Short title | A Galactic Traffic Jam |
Credit/Provider | ESA/Hubble & NASA, P. Erwin et a |
Source | ESA/Hubble |
Image title | The barred spiral galaxy NGC 3887, seen here as viewed by the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, lies over 60 million light-years away from us in the southern constellation of Crater (The Cup); it was discovered on 31 December 1785 by the German/British astronomer William Herschel. Its orientation to us, while not exactly face-on, allows us to see NGC 3887’s spiral arms and central bulge in detail, making it an ideal target for studying a spiral galaxy’s winding arms and the stars within them. The very existence of spiral arms was for a long time a problem for astronomers. The arms emanate from a spinning core and should therefore become wound up ever more tightly, causing them to eventually disappear after a (cosmologically) short amount of time. It was only in the 1960s that astronomers came up with the solution to this winding problem; rather than behaving like rigid structures, spiral arms are in fact areas of greater density in a galaxy’s disc, with dynamics similar to those of a traffic jam. The density of cars moving through a traffic jam increases at the centre of the jam, where they move more slowly. Spiral arms function in a similar way; as gas and dust move through the density waves they become compressed and linger, before moving out of them again. |
Publisher | ESA/Hubble |
Usage terms |
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JPEG file comment | The barred spiral galaxy NGC 3887, seen here as viewed by the Wide Field Camera 3 aboard the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, lies over 60 million light-years away from us in the southern constellation of Crater (The Cup); it was discovered on 31 December 1785 by the German/British astronomer William Herschel. Its orientation to us, while not exactly face-on, allows us to see NGC 3887’s spiral arms and central bulge in detail, making it an ideal target for studying a spiral galaxy’s winding arms and the stars within them. The very existence of spiral arms was for a long time a problem for astronomers. The arms emanate from a spinning core and should therefore become wound up ever more tightly, causing them to eventually disappear after a (cosmologically) short amount of time. It was only in the 1960s that astronomers came up with the solution to this winding problem; rather than behaving like rigid structures, spiral arms are in fact areas of greater density in a galaxy’s disc, with dynamics similar to those of a traffic jam. The density of cars moving through a traffic jam increases at the centre of the jam, where they move more slowly. Spiral arms function in a similar way; as gas and dust move through the density waves they become compressed and linger, before moving out of them again. |
Orientation | Normal |
Horizontal resolution | 72 dpi |
Vertical resolution | 72 dpi |
Software used | Adobe Photoshop CC (Windows) |
File change date and time | 15:43, 19 September 2019 |
Y and C positioning | Centered |
Exif version | 2.31 |
Date and time of digitizing | 18:14, 2 September 2019 |
Meaning of each component |
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Supported Flashpix version | 1 |
Color space | Uncalibrated |
IIM version | 4 |
Keywords | NGC 3887 |
Bits per component |
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Height | 1,009 px |
Width | 973 px |
Pixel composition | RGB |
Number of components | 3 |
Contact information |
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2 Garching bei München, None, D-85748 Germany |
Type of media | Observation |
Date metadata was last modified | 17:43, 19 September 2019 |
Unique ID of original document | xmp.did:b46a1298-b2e9-1243-bb4e-36ca7e1f0f65 |