A dwarf galaxy ravaged by grand design: The subject of this new Hubble image is NGC 5474, a dwarf galaxy located 21 million light-years away in the constellation of Ursa Major (The Great Bear). This beautiful image was taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS). The term "dwarf galaxy" may sound diminutive, but don't let that fool you — NGC 5474 contains several billion stars! However, when compared to the Milky Way with its hundreds of billions of stars, NGC 5474 does indeed seem relatively small. NGC 5474 itself is part of the Messier 101 Group. The brightest galaxy within this group is the well-known spiral Pinwheel Galaxy (also known as Messier 101, heic0602). This galaxy's prominent, well-defined arms classify it as a "grand design galaxy", along with other spirals Messier 81 (heic0710) and Messier 74 (heic0719). Also within this group are Messier 101's galactic neighbours. It is possible that gravitational interactions with these companion galaxies have had some influence on providing Messier 101 with its striking shape. Similar interactions with Messier 101 may have caused the distortions visible in NGC 5474. Both the Messier 101 Group and our own Local Group reside within the Virgo Supercluster, making NGC 5474 something of a neighbour in galactic terms.

Name: NGC 5474
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Size : Dwarf
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Ursa Major
Distance: 20 million light years
Release date: 16 June 2014, 10:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA

A curious supernova in NGC 2441: This bright spiral galaxy is known as NGC 2441, located in the northern constellation of Camelopardalis (The Giraffe). However, NGC 2441 is not the only subject of this new Hubble image; the galaxy contains an intriguing supernova named SN1995E, visible as a small dot at the approximate centre of this image. For a labelled view, see potw1425b. Supernova SN1995E, discovered in 1995 as its name suggests is a type Ia supernova. This kind of supernova is found in binary systems, where one star — a white dwarf — drags matter from its orbiting companion until it becomes unstable and explodes violently. White dwarf stars all become unbalanced once they reach the same mass, meaning that they all form supernovae with the same intrinsic brightness. Because of this, they are used as standard candles to measure distances in the Universe. But SN1995E may be useful in another way. More recent observations of this supernova have suggested that it may display a phenomenon known as a light echo, where light is scattered and deflected by dust along our line of sight, making it appear to “echo” outwards from the source. In 2006, Hubble observed SN1995E to be fading in a way that suggested its light was being scattered by a surrounding spherical shell of dust. These echoes can be used to probe both the environments around cosmic objects like supernovae, and the characteristics of their progenitor stars. If SN1995E does indeed have a light echo, it would belong to a very elite club; only two other type Ia supernovae have been found to display light echoes (SN1991T and SN1998bu). NGC 2441 was first seen by Wilhelm Tempel in 1882, a German astronomer with a keen eye for comets. In total, Tempel observed and documented some 21 comets, several of which were named after him. A version of this image was entered into the Hubble’s Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Nick Rose.

Name: NGC 2441, SN 1995E
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Camelopardalis
Distance: 180 million light years
Release date: 23 June 2014, 10:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Nick Rose

A curious supernova in NGC 2441 (annotated): Annotated view of supernova SN1995E in NGC 2441.

Name: NGC 2441, SN 1995E
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Camelopardalis
Distance: 180 million light years
Release date: 23 June 2014, 10:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Nick Rose

A fossil in the making: Discovered by astronomer William Herschel in the late 1700s, NGC 201 is a barred spiral galaxy similar to our own galaxy, the Milky Way. It lies 200 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster), and is invisible to the naked eye. This new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of NGC 201 shows the galaxy in striking detail, capturing the bright centre and the barred spiral arms — arms that do not start directly from the galactic centre, but instead seem to be offset and stem from a "bar" of stars cutting through the middle of the galaxy. Along with three of its closest galactic neighbours (outside the frame), NGC 201 belongs to a group known as the HCG 7 compact galactic group. Hickson Compact Groups (HCG) are relatively small and isolated systems containing a handful of bright, compact galaxies that lie close to one another. As the galaxies within these groups move closer together they interact strongly, dragging galactic material out into space and distorting the structure of the other group members. Eventually, all the galaxies within one HCG will merge together. Simulations have shown that within a billion years, the galaxies within one HCG have merged to form a giant fossil galaxy. It is possible that this is the final fate of all galactic groups. A version of this image was submitted to the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition by contestant Luca Limatola.

Name: HCG 7, NGC 201
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : SpiralLocal Universe : Galaxy : Type : BarredLocal Universe : Galaxy : Grouping : Multiple
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Cetus
Distance: 200 million light years
Release date: 30 June 2014, 10:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA Acknowledgement: Luca Limatola

A galaxy with a glowing heart: This view, captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, shows a nearby spiral galaxy known as NGC 1433. At about 32 million light-years from Earth, it is a type of very active galaxy known as a Seyfert galaxy — a classification that accounts for 10% of all galaxies. They have very bright, luminous centres comparable to that of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Galaxy cores are of great interest to astronomers. The centres of most, if not all, galaxies are thought to contain a supermassive black hole, surrounded by a disc of infalling material. NGC 1433 is being studied as part of a survey of 50 nearby galaxies known as the Legacy ExtraGalactic UV Survey (LEGUS). Ultraviolet radiation is observed from galaxies, mainly tracing the most recently formed stars. In Seyfert galaxies, ultraviolet light is also thought to emanate from the accretion discs around their central black holes. Studying these galaxies in the ultraviolet part of the spectrum is incredibly useful to study how the gas is behaving near the black hole. This image was obtained using a mix of ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light. LEGUS will study a full range of properties from a sample of galaxies, including their internal structure. This Hubble survey will provide a unique foundation for future observations with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). ALMA has already caught unexpected results relating to the centre of NGC 1433, finding a surprising spiral structure in the molecular gas close to the centre of NGC 1433. The astronomers also found a jet of material flowing away from the black hole, extending for only 150 light-years — the smallest such molecular outflow ever observed in a galaxy beyond our own.

Name: NGC 1433
Type: Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Category: Galaxies
Constellation: Horologium
Distance: 30 million light years
Release date: 7 July 2014, 10:00
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASAAcknowledgements: D. Calzetti (UMass) and the LEGUS Team