Hubble Captures a Bright Spiral in the Queen’s Hair
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the jewel-bright spiral galaxy NGC 4689, which lies 54 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices. This constellation has the distinction of being the only one of the 88 constellations officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as one named after the historical figure, Queen Berenice II of Egypt. The Latin word ‘coma’ references her hair, which means that NGC 4689 lies in the hair of a queen. Some people of Berenice’s time would have meant this quite literally, as the story goes that her court astronomer thought that a missing lock of Berenice’s hair had been catasterised (a word meaning ‘placed amongst the stars’) by the gods: hence the name of the constellation, Coma Berenices.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, J. Lee, and the PHANGS-HST Team
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #galaxy
Read more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory
Hubble Captures a Bright Spiral in the Queen’s Hair
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows the jewel-bright spiral galaxy NGC 4689, which lies 54 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices. This constellation has the distinction of being the only one of the 88 constellations officially recognized by the International Astronomical Union (IAU) as one named after the historical figure, Queen Berenice II of Egypt. The Latin word ‘coma’ references her hair, which means that NGC 4689 lies in the hair of a queen. Some people of Berenice’s time would have meant this quite literally, as the story goes that her court astronomer thought that a missing lock of Berenice’s hair had been catasterised (a word meaning ‘placed amongst the stars’) by the gods: hence the name of the constellation, Coma Berenices.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, J. Lee, and the PHANGS-HST Team
#NASAMarshall #NASA #astrophysics #NASAChandra #NASA #galaxy
Read more about the Chandra X-ray Observatory