{"id":696498,"date":"2025-10-24T18:45:27","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T15:45:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/image-focusing-on-ngc-3370\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T18:45:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T15:45:27","slug":"image-focusing-on-ngc-3370","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/image-focusing-on-ngc-3370\/","title":{"rendered":"Image: Focusing on NGC 3370"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \"Image:
\n Credit: ESA\/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess, K. Noll
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Today’s ESA\/Hubble Picture of the Week features a galaxy that Hubble has captured multiple times over more than 20 years. The galaxy is called NGC 3370, and it is a spiral galaxy located nearly 90 million light-years away in the constellation Leo (the Lion).<\/p>\n

What is it about this galaxy that makes it a popular target for researchers? NGC 3370 is home to two kinds of objects that astronomers prize for their usefulness in determining distances to faraway galaxies: Cepheid variable stars and Type Ia supernovae.<\/p>\n

Cepheid variable stars change in both size and temperature as they pulsate. As a result, the luminosity of these stars varies over a period of days to months. It does so in a way that reveals something important: the more luminous a Cepheid variable star is, the more slowly it pulsates.<\/p>\n

By measuring how long a Cepheid variable’s brightness takes to complete one cycle, astronomers can determine how bright the star actually is. Paired with how bright the star app<\/a>ears from Earth, this information gives the distance to the star and its home galaxy.<\/p>\n

Type Ia supernovae provide a way to measure distances in a single explosive burst rather than through regular brightness variations. Type Ia supernovae happen when the dead core of a star ignites in a sudden flare of nuclear fusion. These explosions peak at very similar luminosities, and much like for a Cepheid variable star, knowing the intrinsic brightness of a supernova explosion allows for its distance to be measured. Observations of Cepheid variable stars and Type Ia supernovae are both critical for precisely measuring how fast our universe is expanding.<\/p>\n

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\n \"Image:
\n NGC 3370 in 2003. Credit: NASA\/ESA, The Hubble Heritage Team and A. Riess
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A previous Hubble image (above) of NGC 3370 was released in 2003<\/a>. The image released today zooms in on the galaxy, presenting a richly detailed view that incorporates wavelengths of light that were not included in the previous version. NGC 3370 is a member of the NGC 3370 group of galaxies along with other Hubble targets NGC 3447<\/a> and NGC 3455<\/a>.<\/p>\n