Apparently this could be the first released image of the NGC 1087 galaxy by the Hubble Space Telescope. It's always satisfying to find more distant and faint galaxies in the background of Hubble images - it adds more mystery behind the main scene.
NGC 1087 is an intermediate spiral galaxy in Cetus. The central bar/core is very small with many irregular features in the surrounding disk of material. With the many strange features of NGC 1087, its true nature is still uncertain. It has an extremely small nucleus and a very short stellar bar. Unlike most barred galaxies, the bar apparently has some new star-formation taking place. There is a multiple spiral structure defined more by the dust lanes than by luminous matter. Overall, the disc has a very low surface brightness. Even though it appears close to another galaxy (NGC 1090), these two galaxies are not interacting and should be considered isolated from one another.
NCG 1087 lies near the small M77 (NGC 1068) galaxy group that also includes NGC 936, NGC 1055, and NGC 1090. However, because of its distance, it probably is not an actual group member.
Based on the published red shift a rough distance estimate for NGC 1087 is 80 million light-years, with a diameter of about 86,800 light-years.
Based on data from proposal 15654 and Janice Lee as principle investigator.
Image credits: NASA/ESA/Hubble
Processing & copyright: Leo Shatz
Text credits: Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_1087
Comments