Hubble Space Telescope picture of spiral nebula NGC 105. Credit: ESA/Hubble & & NASA, D. Jones, A. Riess et al., Acknowledgement: R. Colombari
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures the spiral galaxy NGC 105, which lies approximately 215 million light-years away in the constellation Pisces. While it appears like NGC 105 is plunging edge-on into an accident with a surrounding galaxy, this is just the result of the possibility positioning of the 2 objects in the night sky. NGC 105s extended neighbor is actually far more distant and remains fairly unknown to astronomers. These deceptive combinations take place regularly in astronomy– for example, the stars in constellations are at greatly various ranges from Earth, and just appear to form patterns thanks to the possibility positioning of their element stars.
The Wide Field Camera 3 observations in this image are from a vast collection of Hubble measurements examining neighboring galaxies which consist of 2 remarkable astronomical phenomena– Cepheid variables and cataclysmic supernova explosions. Whilst these two phenomena may seem unassociated– one is a peculiar class of pulsating stars and the other is the explosion caused by the disastrous final throes of an enormous stars life– they are both used by astronomers for an extremely particular purpose: measuring the vast distances to huge things. Both Cepheids and supernovae have very predictable luminosities, meaning that astronomers can inform exactly how intense they are. By determining how intense they appear when observed from Earth, these “basic candles” can offer reliable distance measurements. NGC 105 contains both supernovae and Cepheid variables, providing astronomers an important opportunity to adjust the two range measurement techniques versus one another.
Astronomers recently thoroughly analyzed the ranges to a sample of galaxies consisting of NGC 105 to determine how quick deep space is broadening– a worth known as the Hubble constant. Their outcomes dont concur with the forecasts of the most widely-accepted cosmological design, and their analysis reveals that there is just a 1-in-a-million possibility that this disparity was triggered by measurement mistakes. This discrepancy in between galaxy measurements and cosmological forecasts has been an enduring source of consternation for astronomers, and these current findings offer persuasive new proof that something is either incorrect or lacking in our standard model of cosmology.
By ESA/Hubble
January 2, 2022
While it looks like NGC 105 is plunging edge-on into a crash with a surrounding galaxy, this is simply the result of the possibility alignment of the 2 things in the night sky. NGC 105 contains both supernovae and Cepheid variables, providing astronomers a valuable chance to calibrate the two distance measurement methods against one another.
Astronomers just recently carefully analyzed the ranges to a sample of galaxies consisting of NGC 105 to measure how fast the Universe is broadening– a value known as the Hubble constant.
