Hubble telescope captures galaxies with strong optical illusion
By ForGeeks Astronomers have assembled a collection of spiral galaxies located at different distances from our Earth into one unique composition. The Hubble Space Telescope played a major role in creating this amazing image. It was able to capture the distant galaxy NGC 1356, located in the constellation of the Clock and separated from us by a distance of 550 million light years.
Hubble Telescope.
NGC 1356 is surrounded by several smaller galaxies that are also shaped like spirals. Above the main object is the galaxy LEDA 467699, and to the left of NGC 1356 can be seen LEDA 95415, 840 million light-years distant. Still to the left of the image, a collection of stars called IC 1947 catches the eye. This amazing image demonstrates how the three spatial dimensions of the Universe are transformed into a 2D image, allowing us to get a sense of the scale of cosmic objects. It also demonstrates how powerful the Hubble telescope is at imaging galaxies at such different distances.
It is particularly interesting to note, what appears in the image to be the distance between the two galaxies is actually an angular distance, and is about 400,000 light years. Thus, the galaxies NGC 1356 and IC 1947 in the constellation Clock are really close cosmic neighbors compared to the distant NGC 1356 and LEDA 95415.
