30 July 2012
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Fig. 1
The small populous galaxy DDO 82
Credit: ESA/NASA
NASA recently published a wonderful picture of DDO 82, a curious small galaxy, resembling a cloud of vapor. The image was acquired by the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), a large sophisticated astronomical observatory, exploring the cosmos from Earth orbit.
Relatively few galaxies possess the twirling, prominent spiral arms of our Galaxy, the Milky Way. In fact, most galaxies resemble DDO 82. Though tiny compared to the size of our magnificent Galaxy, these cosmic dwarfs may contain between a few million and a few billion stars. Also, DDO 82 is not without a hint of structure; it resembles the Large Magellanic Cloud, a small galaxy which has one spiral arm.
DDO 82 is visible in the sky among the stars of the constellation of Ursa Major (the Great Bear). It is located approximately 13 million light-years away, and is regarded a member of a group of around three dozen galaxies, called the M81 Group. The galaxies of this group are bound by mutual forces of gravitation. DDO 82 gets its name from its entry number in the David Dunlap Observatory Catalogue, a list of dwarf galaxies.
References:
NASA
www.nasa.gov/
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist