- Hidden Galaxy Framed Print
Hidden Galaxy Framed Print
The Hidden Galaxy is an average sized galaxy of 100 billion stars. A spiral galaxy with "Face-on" orientation, means that it appears as a pizza would if it was lying flat on a table and you were looking down at it from above. An "Edge-on" spiral galaxy is the orientation of lowering your eye to the edge of the table where the pizza visually becomes a line. In that latter orientation, the light from billions of stars accumulate to make a much stronger contrast, creating an easier to detect object. Due to that bias, it incorrectly appears that "Edge-on" spiral galaxies outnumber "Face-on" galaxies 10:1. In reality there's an entire spectrum of angles between Face-on" and "Edge-on" because the Universe has no preferred orientation.
Face-on orientation doesn’t alone explain why it wasn't until 1892, after 7,500 other deep space objects had been cataloged, that one of the most beautiful "Face-on" spirals in the known Universe was discovered. This would be like the Polynesians not finding Hawaii until flying there on Pan American Airlines. The reason this galaxy remained hidden from navigators of the Cosmic Ocean, aka astronomers, for so long, is that we have to look through the edge of the Winter Arm (aka The Orion Spur) of our own Milky Way to see this other galaxy some 11-million light years beyond. What’s more, even though the Hidden Galaxy is smaller and five times farther away than the mighty Andromeda Galaxy, it would be even brighter than Andromeda, if not for so much of our galaxy’s stars and dust clouds dimming its powerful golden light.
As with most deep space objects, you’ll only see the Hidden Galaxy as a gray spiral smudge through our biggest telescopes. An image like this requires several hours of photography to gather enough photons of light to create this true color depiction of this gorgeous galaxy.