It’s only a matter of months until the Hubble telescope that’s operated by NASA and the ESA will be replaced by the next-generation James Webb Telescope. Even so, Hubble still seems to have some important things to prove.
The over-three-decades-old space telescope astonishes the world once again for capturing a breathtaking image of a “furnace” galaxy located roughly 68 million light-years away from us. SciTechDaily.com brings the exciting information.
Meet NGC 1385, the spiral galaxy
Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) is responsible for capturing the following image:
📷 This NASA/ESA @HUBBLE_space Telescope image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 1385 👉https://t.co/qLs8NSYszK pic.twitter.com/XSktkHTKf4
— ESA (@esa) August 16, 2021
The Fornax constellation was named after a word that you may have already guessed. In Latin, “Fornax” means “furnace”. Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille is the French astronomer who named the constellation in that way in 1756.
The Fornax constellation is located in the southern celestial hemisphere, and it’s partly ringed by the celestial river Eridanus. The three brightest stars of the constellation are Alpha, Beta, and Nu Fornacis. They form a flattened triangle that faces south.
The Hubble astronomers said the following about Lacaille, as quoted by Sci-News.com:
Lacaiile named 14 of the 88 constellations that are still recognized today,
He seems to have had a penchant for naming constellations after scientific instruments, including Atlia (the air pump), Norma (the ruler, or set square) and Telescopium (the telescope).
In the observable Universe alone, astronomers estimate that there are between 200 billion to two trillion galaxies. A galaxy contains lots of stars, and to make an idea of just how many, keep in mind that the Milky Way galaxy alone has between 100 billion to 200 billion stars.
Therefore, you should never worry that astronomers will ever run out of material to explore. There are so many galaxies out there that are awaiting astronomers and their fancy gadgets!
