Spiral Galaxy NGC 3344 In Leo Minor: Valentine's Day Majesty
A new massive image of Spiral Galaxy NGC 3344 in Leo Minor was revealed this week by the folks at the Hubble European Space Agency. This is a multi-filter image that depicts a spiral galaxy sitting at around 20-million light-years from our Earth. We've got a set of coordinates for you to map this galaxy in your night sky and individual filter and color band information too.
This observed section of our universe is identified by Hubble with ID: heic1803a. The image Hubble provides is a combination of Optical B, Ultraviolet (UV), Optical u, Optical y, Optical V, Optical l, and Optical H=alpha + NIII. The imagery we see here is a combination of these views.
This galaxy is a weakly barred spiral galaxy, and it's right around half the size of our own Milky Way. The place this galaxy is located puts it just inside our "Local Group" with around 40 other galaxies (that we know about so far). As the Hubble crew suggest, this galaxy's location is on a "small spur" thats part of the larger Virgo Supercluster. There, in that much larger fishbowl, thousands of galaxies can be found.
Above you'll find the largest version(s) of this image we can make available here. This image is presented in both horizontal and vertical arrangements, as well as its full-aspect-ratio square shape, making it real nice for a wallpaper for the device you're on right this minute. Feel free to download to your heart's content.
Coordinates for this galaxy:
• Position (RA): 10 43 31.08
• Position (Dec): 24° 55' 14.25"
• Field of view: 2.58 x 2.48 arcminutes
• Orientation: North is 22.8° right of vertical
Through the Worldwide Telescope project, users can view this spiral galaxy in the approximate location it rests in in our night sky. Users can zoom in, zoom out, and show multiple layers for each sector in our universe. This tool is available thanks to the efforts of the American Astronomical Society. This tool can be run in a web browser or as an app downloaded to a Windows PC.