Day 22 of the 2024 Space Telescope Advent Calendar
Day 22 of the Space Telescope’s Advent Calendar 2024: Spiral Edge UGC 10043 is located approximately 150 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Snake. It is one of the relatively rare spiral galaxies seen near the edge. From this perspective, we see the galaxy’s disk as a sharp line through space. Overlaid with prominent dust channels. We can see the glow of the active star-forming regions in the arms peeking out from behind the dust. Surprisingly, we can also see that the galaxy’s center has a glowing, almost elliptical “bulge.” which floats above and below the disk This bulge is unusually large compared to the galactic disk. This may be due to material absorbed by UGC 10043 from a nearby dwarf galaxy.
View the full Advent calendar here. A new photo will be revealed every day until December 25th.
