Galaxy on the edge of space

For your weekend eye candy pleasure, I have an unusual galaxy for you. Actually, it’s an unusual picture of an unusual galaxy!

Check out NGC 6503:

This picture is brought to you by the good folks of Hubble Space Telescope. Click it to get the galactinated 4000 x 2200 pixel version.

This picture is wee bit odd because it combines images from two different filters not generally seen together. One is a near infrared filter just outside the range of the human eye (0.814 microns, if you’re keeping a log of all this) and shows mostly stars, colored blue in the picture. The pink/red is coming from a filter that isolates the light from hydrogen gas, and shows where stars are actively forming in giant nebulae. These factories are like our own Orion Nebula, cranking out stars.



I’ve seen images of NGC 6503 before — like the one inset here from NOAO — so I have a passing familiarity with it. Like most spirals, it has more older stars toward the center and bluer, younger ...

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