Welcome to this month’s post for the Hubble 35th Anniversary Challenge. More information about the challenge can be found on the Pennsylvania Night Sky page (link in the upper right).
I successfully submitted for a Silver Certificate for this challenge for February and March. Spring is known as “Galaxy Season,” and here are several examples for April. (The galaxies are the bigger fuzzy blobs, in case you can’t tell.)
Messier 65 and 66 are galaxies which are part of a group known as the Leo Triplet. M66 is on left in this photo, and M65 is on the right. They are both spiral galaxies. This small group is about 35 million light-years away from our solar system in the constellation Leo. The group also contains NGC 3628, which is not pictured here..
NGC 3115 (also called the Spindle Galaxy or Caldwell 53) is a field lenticular galaxy in the constellation Sextans. The galaxy was discovered by William Herschel on February 22, 1787. At about 32 million light-years away from Earth, it is several times bigger than the Milky Way. It is a lenticular galaxy because it contains a disk and a central bulge of stars, but without a detectable spiral pattern. NGC 3115 is seen almost exactly edge-on, and it is believed to contain a supermassive black hole in its center.
Messier 95 and 96 are a pairing of spiral galaxies lying under a degree apart at the center of Leo. They are remarkably similar in size and brightness, with Messier 96 (NGC 3368), about 31 million light-years away, being marginally the brighter than Messier 95 (NGC 3351). M95 is slightly larger and about 33 million light-years away. M96 is a spiral galaxy, while M95 sports a central bar.
NGC 3632 (also known as Caldwell 40 and NGC 3626) is an unbarred lenticular galaxy also in the constellation Leo. It was discovered by William Herschel, on 14 March 1784. The galaxy belongs to the NGC 3607 group and is some 70 million light-years away.
Finally, for something different, we have NGC 3242 (also known as Caldwell 59), a planetary nebula located in the constellation Hydra. William Herschel discovered the nebula on February 7, 1785. John Herschel also observed it from the Cape of Good Hope, South Africa, in the 1830s. This planetary nebula is most frequently called the Ghost of Jupiter, or Jupiter’s Ghost due to its similar shape to the planet, but it is also sometimes referred to as the Eye Nebula. The nebula measures around two light-years long from end to end, and contains a central white dwarf. The nebula is the round spot in the center with the purplish ring around it.
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