Hot blue stars and cold red stars: ESA shares gorgeous image of spiral galaxy
NGC 6000 is a spiral galaxy located 102 million light-years away in the constellation Scorpius. Hubble captured it while observing the sites of recent supernovae in nearby galaxies. Supernovae are powerful and luminous explosions that mark the end of a star’s life.
NGC 6000 has had two recent supernovae: one in 2007 (SN 2007ch) and the other in 2010 (SN 2010as). By observing supernovae, scientists can have a better idea of the size of a star before its death. They can also tell if an exploding star had a companion star.
Hubble’s image of this galaxy shows its bright yellow center. The older stars tend to be closer to this center. Dark dust lanes hover around the center, blocking out some of the light coming from the galactic core.
Surrounding this center are the galaxy’s spiral arms. Younger, more massive stars line the arms. These stars are hotter and appear bluer. On the other hand, the older stars are cooler and appear redder.
Zooming into the right side of the galaxy’s disc in the image, a set of four thin lines may be visible. These are asteroids in our solar system. These asteroids were drifting across Hubble’s field of view while the telescope was observing NGC 6000.
Scientists continue to use Hubble to understand more about stars, including how they are born and how they die.
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