The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the dwarf spiral galaxy IC 1727.
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the dwarf spiral galaxy IC 1727. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble.
IC 1727, also known as LEDA 6574 and UGC 1249, lies 24.3 million light-years away from us in the constellation of Triangulum.
The galaxy is currently interacting with its near neighbor, the barred spiral galaxy NGC 672 (which is just out of frame).
The pair’s interactions have triggered peculiar and intriguing phenomena within both objects — most noticeably in IC 1727.
The galaxy’s structure is visibly twisted and asymmetric, and its bright nucleus has been dragged off-center.
In interacting galaxies such as these, astronomers often see signs of intense star formation and spot newly-formed star clusters.
They are thought to be caused by gravity churning, redistributing, and compacting the gas and dust.
In fact, scientists have analyzed the star formation within IC 1727 and NGC 672 and discovered something interesting: the observations show that simultaneous bursts of star formation in the two galaxies occurred in the intervals 20-30 and 450-750 million years ago.
The most likely explanation for this is that the galaxies are indeed an interacting pair, approaching each other every so often and swirling up gas and dust as they pass close by.
The color image of IC 1727 was made from separate exposures taken in the visible, infrared and ultraviolet regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) and Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).
Six filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter.
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