The swirling spiral galaxy on this NASA/ESA Hubble House Telescope Image of the Week is NGC 3285B, which resides 137 million light-years away within the constellation Hydra (The Water Snake). Hydra has the biggest space of the 88 constellations that cowl your entire sky in a celestial patchwork. It is also the longest constellation, stretching 100 levels throughout the sky. It could take practically 200 full Moons, positioned facet by facet, to achieve from one facet of the constellation to the opposite.
NGC 3285B is a member of the Hydra I cluster, one of many largest galaxy clusters within the close by Universe. Galaxy clusters are collections of lots of to hundreds of galaxies which are sure to 1 one other by gravity. The Hydra I cluster is anchored by two big elliptical galaxies at its heart. Every of those galaxies is about 150,000 light-years throughout, making them about 50% bigger than our dwelling galaxy, the Milky Method.
NGC 3285B sits on the outskirts of its dwelling cluster, removed from the large galaxies on the heart. This galaxy drew Hubble’s consideration as a result of it hosted a Sort Ia supernova in 2023. Sort Ia supernovae occur when a kind of condensed stellar core referred to as a white dwarf detonates, igniting a sudden burst of nuclear fusion that briefly shines about 5 billion instances brighter than the Solar. The supernova, named SN 2023xqm, is seen right here as a bluish dot on the left fringe of the galaxy’s disc.
Hubble noticed NGC 3285B as a part of an observing program that focused 100 Sort Ia supernovae. By viewing every of those supernovae in ultraviolet, optical, and near-infrared mild, researchers purpose to disentangle the consequences of distance and dirt, each of which might make a supernova seem redder than it truly is. This program will assist refine cosmic distance measurements that depend on observations of Sort Ia supernovae.
