Suggested Searches

1 min read

NGC 5335 Compass Image

Image titled “NGC 5335, HST WFC3/UVIS” at top left with compass arrows and color key at the bottom. Below the name, filters are listed: F475W in blue, F625W in green, and F814W in red. These colors indicate the visible-light color is assigned to each filter. Barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335 takes up the majority of the view. At its center is a milky yellow, flattened oval surrounded by what looks like a bar extending from top left to bottom right. Around this is a thick swath of blue stars speckled with white regions. Multiple arms wrap up and around in a counterclockwise direction. Distant galaxies in an array of colors are speckled throughout the black background. The length of the scale bar at bottom left is about a quarter of the total width. It is labeled 48,000 light-years and 45 arcseconds. At the bottom right are compass arrows indicating the orientation of the image on the sky. The east arrow points toward 10 o’clock. The north arrow points toward 2 o’clock.

This image of barred spiral galaxy NGC 5335 was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3).

The image shows a scale bar, compass arrows, and color key for reference.

The scale bar is labeled in light-years along the top, which is the distance that light travels in one Earth-year. (It takes 48,000 years for light to travel a distance equal to the length of the scale bar.) One light-year is equal to about 5.88 trillion miles or 9.46 trillion kilometers.

The scale bar is also labeled in arcseconds, which is a measure of angular distance on the sky. One arcsecond is equal an angular measurement of 1/3600 of one degree. There are 60 arcminutes in a degree and 60 arcseconds in an arcminute. (The full Moon has an angular diameter of about 30 arcminutes.) The actual size of an object that covers one arcsecond on the sky depends on its distance from the telescope.

The north and east compass arrows show the orientation of the image on the sky. Note that the relationship between north and east on the sky (as seen from below) is flipped relative to direction arrows on a map of the ground (as seen from above).

This image shows visible wavelengths of light that have been translated into visible-light colors. The color key shows which WFC3 filters were used when collecting the light. The color of each filter name is the visible-light color used to represent the light that passes through that filter.

  • Object Name
    Object NameA name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
    NGC 5335
  • Object Description
    Object DescriptionThe type of astronomical object.
    Barred Spiral Galaxy
  • Release Date
    April 23, 2025
  • Science Release
    Eye on Infinity: NASA Celebrates Hubble’s 35th Year in Orbit
  • Credit
    Image: NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Alyssa Pagan (STScI)

Downloads

  • Full Res (For Display), 4076 × 4040
    png (24.83 MB)
  • Full Res (For Print), 4076 × 4040
    tif (25.83 MB)
  • Full Res (JPG), 4076 × 4040
    jpg (5.37 MB)
  • 2000 × 1982
    jpg (1.24 MB)

Share

Details

Last Updated
Apr 23, 2025
Contact
Media

Claire Andreoli
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, Maryland
claire.andreoli@nasa.gov