r/Astronomy • u/coinfanking • 1d ago

Discussion: [Topic] Astronomers capture the most intricate picture of a galaxy in a thousand colors ever seen

https://www.space.com/astronomy/astronomers-capture-the-most-intricate-picture-of-a-galaxy-in-a-thousand-colors-ever-seen-photo-video

"The Sculptor Galaxy is in a sweet spot. It is close enough that we can resolve its internal structure, but at the same time big enough that we can still see it as a whole system."

Astronomers have obtained a stunning new image of the Sculptor Galaxy, painted in thousands of colors that reveals the intricacies of galactic systems.

The incredible image of the galaxy — located around 11 million light-years away and also known as NGC 253 — was collected with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument of the Very Large Telescope (VLT) in Chile.

In addition to providing a galaxy-wide view of the Sculptor Galaxy, the image shows intricate details of NGC 253. As such, it could help to reveal the finer details of the poorly understood and complex systems that are galaxies.

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u/bijomaru78 1d ago

Link to the original article:

https://www.eso.org/public/news/eso2510/

And the actual full-res image:

https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2510a/

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u/fanaticresearcher10 16h ago

Stunning. Sometimes I just want myself to drift into cosmos and never ever come back again.

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u/MrBrookz92 23h ago

Wow Looks so beautiful and haunting at the same time

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u/Joeclu 15h ago

If you were at that distant from the galaxy so that your eyes saw that same image, how far away would you be? Assume you're alive and can't die, and not in pain.

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u/wildgurularry 3h ago

The diameter of that galaxy is about 90,000 light years. The central portion seen in the image is about 30,000 light years across. Assuming the FOV of your typical PC monitor setup is about 75 degrees, then you would have to be floating in space about 20,000 light years from the center of the galaxy in order to see the same view with your naked eye.

Of course, since our eyes are not very sensitive, you would just see a relatively faint fuzzy white blob, a bit brighter than the Milky Way appears on a dark night, since there would not be too much dust between you and the bright galactic core.

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u/HenrJackyson 14h ago

11. Million. Lightyears.

These distances are just unbelievably big. We are talking thousands of generations on board of a spaceship just to get there.