1,000-color image of the Sculptor galaxy
On June 18, 2025, astronomers shared a 1,000-color image of the Sculptor galaxy from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). The rich colors of the galaxy come alive in this image, which took more than 100 exposures and 50 hours of observations. The details in the color help astronomers understand what is happening inside the galaxy, which lies 11 million light-years away.
Different colors – or wavelengths of light – provide pieces of information to astronomers about the stars, gas and dust in the galaxy. From this information, astronomers can learn how old objects are, what they’re made of and how they’re moving.
Enrico Congiu, at the European Southern Observatory, was the lead author of a new study about the Sculptor galaxy that the peer-reviewed journal Astronomy & Astrophysics published on June 12, 2025. Congiu said:
Galaxies are incredibly complex systems that we are still struggling to understand. The Sculptor galaxy is in a sweet spot. It is close enough that we can resolve its internal structure and study its building blocks with incredible detail. But at the same time, it’s big enough that we can still see it as a whole system.
A powerful tool for astronomers
The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on the VLT took the images for this composite view. This image covers some 65,000 light-years. Co-author Kathryn Kreckel of Heidelberg University in Germany said:
We can zoom in to study individual regions where stars form at nearly the scale of individual stars, but we can also zoom out to study the galaxy as a whole.
Already, astronomers have found some 500 planetary nebulae. These are clouds of gas and dust that stars release at the ends of their lives. We know of many planetary nebulae in our own galaxy, but seeing these many in a distant galaxy is new. Co-author Fabian Scheuermann of Heidelberg University said:
Beyond our galactic neighborhood, we usually deal with fewer than 100 detections per galaxy.
And planetary nebulae are important finds. As co-author Adam Leroy of The Ohio State University explained:
Finding the planetary nebulae allows us to verify the distance to the galaxy — a critical piece of information on which the rest of the studies of the galaxy depend.
Congiu summed up how this new map will help explore what’s happening to stars and gas in the galaxy:
How such small processes can have such a big impact on a galaxy whose entire size is thousands of times bigger is still a mystery.
Bottom line: This new composite image of the Sculptor galaxy looks at one of the closest massive star-forming galaxies to the Milky Way. Its 1,000-color image provides an incredibly detailed view.
Read more: Sculptor galaxy black hole is sleeping, NASA says
The post Sculptor galaxy pops in most detailed 1,000-color image first appeared on EarthSky.
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/IinJfSp
1,000-color image of the Sculptor galaxy
On June 18, 2025, astronomers shared a 1,000-color image of the Sculptor galaxy from the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). The rich colors of the galaxy come alive in this image, which took more than 100 exposures and 50 hours of observations. The details in the color help astronomers understand what is happening inside the galaxy, which lies 11 million light-years away.
Different colors – or wavelengths of light – provide pieces of information to astronomers about the stars, gas and dust in the galaxy. From this information, astronomers can learn how old objects are, what they’re made of and how they’re moving.
Enrico Congiu, at the European Southern Observatory, was the lead author of a new study about the Sculptor galaxy that the peer-reviewed journal Astronomy & Astrophysics published on June 12, 2025. Congiu said:
Galaxies are incredibly complex systems that we are still struggling to understand. The Sculptor galaxy is in a sweet spot. It is close enough that we can resolve its internal structure and study its building blocks with incredible detail. But at the same time, it’s big enough that we can still see it as a whole system.
A powerful tool for astronomers
The Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE) instrument on the VLT took the images for this composite view. This image covers some 65,000 light-years. Co-author Kathryn Kreckel of Heidelberg University in Germany said:
We can zoom in to study individual regions where stars form at nearly the scale of individual stars, but we can also zoom out to study the galaxy as a whole.
Already, astronomers have found some 500 planetary nebulae. These are clouds of gas and dust that stars release at the ends of their lives. We know of many planetary nebulae in our own galaxy, but seeing these many in a distant galaxy is new. Co-author Fabian Scheuermann of Heidelberg University said:
Beyond our galactic neighborhood, we usually deal with fewer than 100 detections per galaxy.
And planetary nebulae are important finds. As co-author Adam Leroy of The Ohio State University explained:
Finding the planetary nebulae allows us to verify the distance to the galaxy — a critical piece of information on which the rest of the studies of the galaxy depend.
Congiu summed up how this new map will help explore what’s happening to stars and gas in the galaxy:
How such small processes can have such a big impact on a galaxy whose entire size is thousands of times bigger is still a mystery.
Bottom line: This new composite image of the Sculptor galaxy looks at one of the closest massive star-forming galaxies to the Milky Way. Its 1,000-color image provides an incredibly detailed view.
Read more: Sculptor galaxy black hole is sleeping, NASA says
The post Sculptor galaxy pops in most detailed 1,000-color image first appeared on EarthSky.
from EarthSky https://ift.tt/IinJfSp
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