The “Image of the Week” section features another beautiful photograph taken from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
The image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 1706, located approximately 230 million light years away in the constellation Dorado. The galaxy was discovered back in 1837 by the English astronomer John Herschel.
NGC 1706 is part of the LDC357 group of galaxies. Such structures include no more than 50 objects. It should be noted that galaxy groups are the most common galaxy structures in the universe, comprising approximately half of the total number of galaxies. For example, our Milky Way is part of the Local Group, which also includes the Andromeda Galaxy, the Triangulum Galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Small Magellanic Cloud, etc.
The presented photograph shows the galaxy NGC 1706 from the front. Thanks to this, the structure of the object is clearly visible, in particular, the twisting spiral arms - regions of active star formation.
In addition, other galaxies can be seen in the background of NGC 1706. All these objects are connected by gravitational interaction.
Source: 3dnews.ru