The spiral galaxy IC 5332
IC 5332 is designated as an SABc-type galaxy in the De Vaucouleurs system of galaxy classification. The ‘S’ is straightforward, identifying it as a spiral galaxy, which it clearly is, given the well-defined arms of bright stars and darker dust that curl outwards from the galaxy’s dense and bright core. The ‘AB’ is a little more complex. It means that the galaxy is weakly barred, which refers to the shape of the galaxy’s centre. The majority of spiral galaxies do not spiral out from a single point, but rather from an elongated bar-type structure. SAB galaxies — which are also known as intermediate spiral galaxies — do not have a clear bar-shape at their core, but also do not spiral out from a single point, instead falling somewhere in between. The lowercase ‘c’ describes how tightly wound the spiral arms are: ‘a’ would indicate very tightly wound, and ‘d’ very loosely wound. Thus, IC 5332 is quite an intermediate spiral galaxy on many fronts: weakly barred, with quite loosely wound arms, and almost completely face-on!
[Image Description: A close-in view of a spiral galaxy. It is seen face-on, showing itscircular shape and tightly winding spiral arms. The galaxy glows brightly in the centre and dims to cool colours towards the edge. Dark, faint filaments of dust and brightly glowing, pink and orange bubbles of star formation mark the face of the galaxy.]
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ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST teamRelevante Bilder
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IC 5332IC 5332 ist eine Spiralgalaxie vom Hubble-Typ SAcd mit aktivem Galaxienkern im Sternbild Bildhauer am Südsternhimmel. Sie ist schätzungsweise 31 Millionen Lichtjahre von der Milchstraße entfernt und hat einen Durchmesser von etwa 60.000 Lichtjahren. .. weiterlesen