The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of the spiral galaxy NGC 7331, which is found in the constellation of Pegasus.
This Hubble/WFC3 image shows the unbarred spiral galaxy NGC 7331. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / D. Milisavljevic, Purdue University.
First spotted by the prolific galaxy hunter William Herschel in 1784, NGC 7331 is 49.2 million light-years away from Earth.
Facing us partially edge-on, the galaxy showcases it’s beautiful arms which swirl like a whirlpool around its bright central region.
NGC 7331 is similar in size, shape, and mass to our own Milky Way Galaxy. It also has a comparable star formation rate, hosts a similar number of stars, has a supermassive black hole in its center and comparable spiral arms.
The primary difference between the galaxies is that NGC 7331 is an unbarred spiral galaxy — it lacks a ‘bar’ of stars, gas and dust cutting through its nucleus, as we see in the Milky Way.
Its central bulge also displays a quirky and unusual rotation pattern, spinning in the opposite direction to the galactic disc itself.
NGC 7331 is the brightest member of the NGC 7331 group of galaxies. The other members are the lenticular or unbarred spirals NGC 7335 and 7336, the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7337 and the elliptical galaxy NGC 7340.
Purdue University astronomer Dan Milisavljevic and colleagues took this image of NGC 7331 using Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), as they were observing a supernova called SN 2014C.
It rapidly evolved from a supernova containing very little hydrogen to one that is hydrogen-rich — in just one year.
This rarely observed metamorphosis was luminous at high energies and provides unique insight into the poorly understood final phases of massive stars.
SN 2014C can still be faintly seen as a tiny red dot near the galaxy’s central yellow core.
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