Photo of the day: the swirling eye of the Milky Way twin
The Hubble Space Telescope’s website under the heading “Image of the Week” has published a gorgeous photograph of the galaxy designated NGC 2217, also known as AM 0619-271.
The named object is located in the constellation Canis Major at a distance of approximately 65 million light-years from us. The NGC 2217 image captures a full face, making the structure of the galaxy perfectly visible, in particular, its bright central part and swirling spiral arms.
NGC 2217 is a barred spiral galaxy similar to our own Milky Way. Objects of this type have a so-called “bar” of bright stars that emerges from the centre and crosses the galaxy in the middle.
Observations show that gas in the interior of NGC 2217 moves in the opposite direction to the rotation of the stars. The galaxy is estimated to be about 100,000 light-years across.
It should be added that the data from the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) were used to form the image. It is a complex of panoramic and rapid response telescopes located at the summit of the Mauna Kea volcano on the island of Hawaii.
