Hubble Space Telescope glimpses spiral galaxy UGC 9684

The celestial object showcased on this picture from the NASA/ESA Hubble House Telescope is the spiral galaxy UGC 9684, which lies round 240 million light-years from Earth within the constellation Boötes. This picture exhibits a formidable instance of a number of traditional galactic options, together with a transparent bar within the galaxy’s heart, and a halo surrounding its disk.

The info for this Hubble picture got here from a research of Sort-II supernovae host galaxies. These cataclysmic stellar explosions happen all through the universe, and are of nice curiosity to astronomers, so automated surveys scan the night time sky and try and catch sight of them. The supernova which introduced UGC 9684 to Hubble’s consideration occurred in 2020. It has since light from view and isn’t seen on this picture, which was taken in 2023.

Remarkably, the 2020 supernova is not the one one which astronomers have seen on this galaxy—UGC 9684 has hosted 4 supernova-like occasions since 2006, placing it up there with probably the most energetic supernova-producing galaxies. It seems that UGC 9684 is an energetic star-forming galaxy, calculated as producing one solar mass value of stars each few years. Probably the most huge of those stars are short-lived, just a few million years, and finish their days as supernova explosions. This excessive degree of star formation makes UGC 9684 a veritable supernova manufacturing unit, and a galaxy to look at for astronomers hoping to look at these distinctive occasions.