Maffei_1_and_2.jpg
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Summary
| Description |
English:
A
mosaic
of images from
WISE
in the
constellation
of
Cassiopeia
. This region contains a large
star
forming
nebula
within the
Milky Way Galaxy
, called IC 1805 (sometimes called the Heart Nebula), a portion of which is seen at the right of the image. IC 1805 is over 6 thousand light-years from
earth
. Also visible in this image are two nearby galaxies, Maffei 1 and Maffei 2. In visible
light
these galaxies are hidden by [[:Category:|
dust
]] in IC 1805 and were unknown until 1968 when Paolo Maffei found them using
infra-red
observations. Both galaxies contain billions of stars and are located some 10 million light-years away (well outside our own Milky Way Galaxy). Maffei 1 is the bluish elliptical object in the centre of the image. It is a Lenticular type galaxy, which has a disk-like structure and a central bulge but no spiral structure or appreciable dust content. Maffei 2 (to the upper left of Maffei 1) is a
Spiral type galaxy
that also has a disk shape, but with a bar-like central bulge and two prominent dusty spiral arms.
|
| Date | |
| Source | NASA Image of the Day |
| Author | NASA/JPL-Caltech/WISE Team |
The image size is about 1.6 by 4.5 degrees (The full Moon is about 0.5 degrees across by comparison). Since this is an image of invisible infra-red light, blue is mapped to the WISE 3.4 & 4.6 micron channels and is dominated by star light. Green represents the WISE 12 micron channel, and red is the 22 micron channel, which are dominated by infra-red emission from warm interstellar dust.
Licensing
|
This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA . NASA copyright policy states that "NASA material is not protected by copyright unless noted ". (See Template:PD-USGov , NASA copyright policy page or JPL Image Use Policy .) |
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Warnings:
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| Annotations | This image is annotated: View the annotations at Commons |
