Old, New, and Future Stars in NGC 3596
This gorgeous face-on spiral galaxy is called NGC 3596. This image combines Hydrogen-alpha emission (red), visible light in the R-band (white), and neutral hydrogen 21cm gas emission (blue) from the Very Large Array (VLA). What you see when you combine the invisible waves with visible ones is the enormous shroud of gas surrounding this galaxy. Mature stars twinkle in white, new stars shine their nursery clouds in reds, and the gas for future stars glows in blue.
Credit: T. Burchell and B. Saxton (NRAO/AUI/NSF) from data provided by A. C. Boley and L. van Zee, Indiana University; D. Schade and S. Côté, Herzberg Institute for Astrophysics
| Technical Details | |
|---|---|
| Telescope | CFHT; CFHT; VLA |
| Band | H alpha; R; L |
| Date | -; -; 1999-01-04 |
| Center | RA: 11:15:06.22, Dec: 14:47:13.65 |
| Field of View | 5.2 x 5.2 arcminutes |
