Galaxy NGC 6902 in Sagittarius | SPECULOOS Southern Observato

Galaxy NGC 6902 in Sagittarius | SPECULOOS Southern Observatory

This is a first-light image from the SPECULOOS Southern Observatory at the European Southern Observatory's Paranal Observatory. This planet-hunting machine is designed to observe nearby but dim stars to locate exoplanets for other telescopes—such as European Southern Observatory's upcoming Extremely Large Telescope (ELT)—to study in detail. Comprising four one-meter telescopes, each named after one of Jupiter’s Galilean moons, SPECULOOS aims to open up new frontiers in exoplanet research.

This image, however, is obviously not of a faint star, but of a galaxy called NGC 6902. Before a telescope starts its primary mission it must successfully undertake an event called “first light”: the first time it is used for a scientific observation. Astronomers typically pick well-known objects for this initial test of a telescope’s capabilities. It is half demonstration and half celebration. In this case, the team settled on NGC 6902 as the first-light target for the Ganymede telescope.

The result was this stunning image of the spiral galaxy. It is found about 120 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Sagittarius (The Archer). The galaxy’s spiral arms swirl outwards from a bright center until they dissolve into streams of blue haze at the galaxy’s edge. Discovered in the year 1836 by John Herschel, NGC 6902 is a beautiful spiral galaxy located more than 130 million light-years away in the constellation of Sagittarius, the Archer.

Credit: ESO/SPECULOOS Team/E. Jehin

Release Date: Feb. 25, 2019

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