Hubble Managed To Capture An Image Of The Hidden Galaxy

Hubble managed to capture a much clearer image of IC 342 or the Hidden Galaxy.

The Hubble Space Telescope managed to snap a picture of a quite challenging cosmic target, namely the so-called Hidden Galaxy. Named IC 342, this bright galaxy is nonetheless hard to spot and capture in pictures, thus gaining its nickname mentioned above. IC 342 is situated relatively close to the Milky Way, at least in astronomical terms.

The Hidden Galaxy Offers a First Clearer Look

Because of the many obstacles in their way, astronomers have yet to determine the exact distance separating the two systems. This could be anything in between 7 million light years, to 11 million light years.

The Hidden Galaxy or Caldwell 5 is an intermediate spiral galaxy. It is positioned near the equator of the galactic disk of the Milky Way. This cosmic region is heavily populated by bright stars, dark dust, and cosmic gas. Also, these are not the only obstacle in viewing IC 342. The galaxy is also obscured by a significant amount of cosmic material in our solar system.

IC 342 appears to be one of the two brightest galaxies in the IC 342/Maffei Group galaxy groups of the Camelopardalis constellation. First discovered in 1985 by William Frederick Denning, it can be detected even with binoculars.

However, all the obstacles in its path make it hard to observe by either amateur or professional astronomers. Now, with some help from the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA and ESA managed to capture the clearest yet image of the Hidden Galaxy.

This reveals: “A beautiful mixture of hot, blue star-forming regions, redder, cooler regions of gas, and dark lanes of opaque dust can be seen, all swirling together around a bright core.”

These colors indicate, according to a NASA statement, that the galaxy is very active. The new image reportedly captured the “very central region” of IC 342.

Back in 2003, astronomers confirmed that the core of this galaxy is a very specific type of central region. Titled an HII nucleus, its very name underlines the presence of ionized hydrogen. This is likely a driving force behind the creation of so many hot new stars.

Image Source: Flickr

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Nancy Young

When I was younger I used to spend almost all of my free time playing computer games. My mom and dad would go mental over this. “You’re never going to do anything with your life if you are going to play games all day” they used to say. What was even more unusual was the fact that I played more games than most of the guys in my friend group. Looking back, I have to admit that I probably played a bit too much, but I also learned a lot of great things. When I turned 20 I decided that it was high-time to make some money of my own, but the only jobs I could get were that of waitress or cashier. How exciting. After several excruciating months of serving tables I had a great idea: since I love gaming so much, why don’t I write about it? That’s when I started doing small writing projects on Elance. Eventually, I got an offer for a part-time job. During that time I learned all about content marketing strategies and how search engines work. I started writing about various topics such as technology, health and lifestyle and discovered that I was actually good at it. On November 24, 2014, I became part of the ArgyllFreePress team.