Hubble recently captured a view of a bright, “paint blob” galaxy in space with a rich astronomy history.
The illuminated object, dubbed NGC 1803, is roughly 200 million light-years away from Earth and it’s located in the southern constellation of Pictor (the Painter’s Easel).
This galaxy was discovered by astronomer John Herschel in 1834, and today it’s still a beauty in space. According to NASA, John, his father William, and his aunt Caroline made major contributions to the astronomy field and their legacies continue today.
A little blob of paint on the masterpiece of the night sky 🎨@NASAHubble spotted this bright, round galaxy located 200 million light-years away, in the southern constellation of Pictor (the Painter’s Easel). https://t.co/qGsLnNqvrc pic.twitter.com/aqwnRAIpuR
— NASA (@NASA) January 22, 2020
William named many moons in the solar system, discovered infrared radiation, and catalogued some night sky objects, while Caroline discovered many comets and nebulas. John, who also catalogued night sky objects, took his observations to the next level and combined them into his General Catalogue of Nebulae and Clusters of Stars. This was the foundation of John Louis Emil Dreyer’s New General Catalogue, which is still used by astronomers today.
John’s work resulted in NGC names assigned to many galaxies, including the one above. Part of a galactic pair, NGC 1803 was described as a “faint, small, [and] round” object by Dreyer and it’s near a very bright star in the southeast part of the night sky. The “star,” is actually PGC 16720, a nebulous lenticular galaxy.
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