ISRO releases an image of NGC 2336

Bengaluru, Oct 28: ISRO today released an image of NGC 2336, a magnificent barred spiral galaxy located in the northern constellation of Camelopardalis, or the giraffe at a distance of 105 million light years away from Earth. This Galaxy was one of the first objects chosen to be imaged by the Ultra-Violet Imaging Telescope (UVIT) on board AstroSat that was launched in 2015 and had a resolution of 1.2 arc-seconds in the near UV and 1.5 arc seconds in the far-UV was much better than the initial goal of 1.8 arc seconds. The Near-UV (200-300 nm) and Far-UV (130-180 nm) images obtained were spectacular, showing details finer than in the image from the GALEX ultraviolet telescope. This superior resolving power, along with its large field of view, make UVIT an excellent instrument for investigating star formation in large galaxies like NGC 2336. NGC2336 could be even be seen through medium-sized amateur telescopes under dark skies. This galaxy was discovered by the German astronomer Ernst Tempel in 1877. NGC 2336 has a highly developed and splendid spiral arm structure that emanates from a ring of stars surrounding a central bar. The spiral arms contain a number of star forming regions, or nebulae. These nebulae shine because of hot young stars that are bright in the ultraviolet. AstroSat is the first dedicated Indian astronomy mission aimed at studying celestial sources in X-ray, optical and UV spectral bands simultaneously. The payloads cover the energy bands of Ultraviolet (Near and Far), limited optical and X-ray regime (0.3 keV to 100keV). One of the unique features of AstroSat mission is that it enables the simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of various astronomical objects with a single satellite. UNI