Spiral galaxy NGC 3631 is located 53 million light-years from Earth, in the constellation Ursa Major.
He has been immortalized by astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope. They used two tools for this: the Wide Field Camera 3 and the Advanced Camera for Surveys, thanks to which we can see this spiral galaxy in amazing detail.
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The Advanced Camera for Surveys is used to collect data in the visible light range, while the Wide Field Camera 3 allows ultraviolet and infrared light recording and visible light detection. The first instrument has been used by the Hubble Space Telescope since 2002, while the second has been in use since 2009.
NGC 3631 is a spiral galaxy about 53 million light-years from Earth
Both visible light and infrared data were used to capture this perfect spiral galaxy. Blue tones represent light with the blue wavelength of visible light, while orange tones represent infrared data. Infrared data is especially useful when astronomers want to search, for example, through clouds of dust that are impenetrable by visible light. In addition, it allows mapping of the heat distribution, since warmer objects emit infrared light.
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Star formation in spiral galaxies is similar to highway traffic. Like cars on the highway, slow-moving matter in the spiral disk creates a bottleneck, as gas and star-forming dust are concentrated along the spiral arms from the inside. This cork of matter can become so dense that it collapses under gravity to form new stars.
Astronomers associated with the Hubble telescope explain
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