08 January 2011
A Spitzer Space Telescope image of the mysterious galaxy Maffei 2
Maffei 2 is a prominent galaxy in infrared, but is almost invisible in visual light, as clouds of cosmic dust in our Galaxy nearly obscure this galaxy. Infrared emission can penetrate the dust clouds, and unravel hidden cosmic objects.
Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/J. Turner (UCLA)
Maffei 2 is a remarkable example of a galaxy that shines brightly in infrared, but is almost invisible in visual light. Intervening clouds of cosmic dust in our Galaxy, the Milky Way, block about 99.5% of the light emitted by Maffei 2. However, an infrared image from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (SST) reveals the beautiful galaxy clearly, as infrared radiation can penetrate cosmic dust.
Astronomer Paolo Maffei first noted this galaxy as a strange smudge on a an infrared image, in 1968. Four years later, he identified the bizarre object to be a galaxy, now named in his honor. This was one of the earliest discoveries in infrared astronomy, one of the most interesting branches of modern astronomy, studying the infrared coming from space. Through the following decades, technological advances in infrared astronomy allowed astronomers to study other hidden objects in detail.
This SST image clearly shows the unusual structure of Maffei 2 characterized by an active star formation process. Maffei 2 is a nearby galaxy, by the cosmic distance scale standards, located 10 million light years away.
References
Maffei 2: The Hidden Galaxy
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/images/3463-sig10-025-Maffei-2-The-Hidden-Galaxy
Further Reading
SST Homepage
http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/
Aymen Mohamed Ibrahem
Senior Astronomy Specialist