Despite its more than thirty years of service, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope continues to provide great knowledge about the universe in which we live. On this occasion, it has captured a galaxy in the vicinity of our Milky Way. Her name is LEDA 48062. It is located about 30 million light years away.which in cosmic magnitudes translates into the neighbor from the portal next door.
The observation of the galaxy LEDA 48062 is not accidental. According to the Hubble scientists in the telescope website, is part of an initiative called Every Known Nearby Galaxy (All known nearby galaxies). This project plans to use Hubble as a radar to study each of the galaxies within a distance of 10 megaparsecs, which is approximately 33 million light-years.
“By knowing our galactic neighborhood, astronomers can determine which types of stars reside in various galaxies, as well as map the local structure of the universe.” This is how the Hubble scientists explain it. Remember that the universe has a filamentary structure.. In a map carefully put together by a Johns Hopkins University professor, we already showed it to you in greater detail.
LEDA 48062, one of our galactic neighbors, captured through the gaze of NASA’s Hubble
Although LEDA 48062 is located at a distance of 30 million light years, we can place it specifically in the constellation Perseus. From here, its tenuous and amorphous figure unfolds, the reason for this poorly defined figure being its almost elliptical nature. Meanwhile, other of the galactic bodies that we see in the Hubble image do have a much more precise and bright shape.
An example of this is the lenticular galaxy UC 8603., which also appears in the Hubble capture. It is another neighbor of our Milky Way, although with a much more defined and brighter shape than the previous one.
In the background of the image, a sprinkle of other nearby galactic bodies make an appearance. To these are added intergalactic stars that form light peaks in certain parts of the image. The lower right area of the photo taken by Hubble is one of the clearest points to observe this effect.
Galactic study is essential to understand the universe
Until now, astronomers have succeeded in identifying four common types of galaxies. The first, and where our Milky Way enters, is defined as a type of spiral galaxies. The second type, more similar to LEDA 48062, could be defined as elliptical. For their part, lenticular galaxies are those that are between an elliptical phase and a spiral one, with a disk structure but without outer arms.
Meanwhile, irregular galaxies are those that do not have a definite shape. They are bodies that have probably been deformed by other cosmic bodies, a case often seen in the merger of galaxies.
Studying the closest galaxies to the Milky Way allows scientists to glean more detailed information about all these types of galactic bodies. Instruments such as Hubble not only allow us to study its physical appearance, but also what they contain inside themsuch as stars, dust, gas and the mysterious dark matter.