March 28, 2024

Hubble Spots a Cosmological Curiosity

By ESA/Hubble
November 7, 2021

Hubble Space Telescope picture of the spiral nebula Mrk 1337. Credit: ESA/Hubble & & NASA, A. Riess et al
. This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the spiral galaxy Mrk 1337, which is approximately 120 million light-years far from Earth in the constellation Virgo. Hubbles Wide Field Camera 3 snapped Mrk 1337 at a wide range of ultraviolet, visible and infrared wavelengths, producing this richly detailed image. Mrk 1337 is a weakly barred spiral nebula, which as the name suggests that the spiral arms radiate from a main bar of gas and stars. Bars take place in roughly half of spiral nebula, including our own galaxy the Milky Way.
These observations become part of a campaign to enhance our understanding of how quickly the universe is broadening. They were proposed by Adam Riess, who was awarded a Nobel Laureate in physics 2011 for his contributions to the discovery of the accelerating expansion of deep space, along with Saul Perlmutter and Brian Schmidt.