The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a colorful photo of NGC 4388, an active spiral galaxy at the core of the Virgo Cluster.
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the highly inclined spiral galaxy NGC 4388. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.
NGC 4388 is a highly inclined spiral galaxy located in the constellation Virgo at a distance of 59 million light-years.
It was discovered on April 17, 1784 by British astronomer Sir Wilhelm Herschel.
Also known as LEDA 40581 and IRAS 12232+1256, NGC 4388 is one of the brightest galaxies in the Virgo Cluster, a group of more than 2,000 galaxies.
NGC 4388 has a bright energetic nucleus and so is classified as an active galaxy.
The galaxy is undergoing a transformation, and has taken on a somewhat confused identity.
While NGC 4388’s outskirts appear smooth and featureless, a classic feature of an elliptical galaxy, its center displays remarkable dust lanes constrained within two symmetric spiral arms, which emerge from the galaxy’s glowing core — one of the obvious features of a spiral galaxy.
Within the arms, speckles of bright blue mark the locations of young stars, indicating that NGC 4388 has hosted recent bursts of star formation.
In 2002, astronomers discovered a very large region of ionized gas extending around NGC 4388.
This region has a size of roughly 114,000 light-years and is located preferentially toward the northeastern side of the galaxy. It consists of many filaments or clouds, with a typical size of 330 light-years.
NGC 4388 might have experienced at least one minor merger in the past.
Peculiar morphological characteristics of NGC 4388, such as its boxy bulge and central bar, and the faint hump and tail that extend outside the disk, could have formed as a result of the dynamical disturbance induced by the merger.
Recently, researchers also discovered an intergalactic compact star-forming region near NGC 4388. The location of the region is about 55,000 light-years north of the disk of the galaxy.
This picture of NGC 4388 was snapped by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).
The image was made through a violet (F336W), a blue (F438W) and a near-infrared (F814W) filter. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
