Nasa’s Hubble reveals captivating image of irregular galaxy NGC 2814

livemint.com:

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) recently shared a captivating image of an irregular galaxy NGC 2814 located approximately 85 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Ursa Major. In this stunning image, which was captured by using the Hubble Space Telescope, the irregular galaxy NGC 2814, looks like a loose stroke of bright paint across a dark background.

Contrary to its seemingly isolated appearance, NGC 2814 actually has three close galactic neighbours: a side-on spiral galaxy known as NGC 2820; an irregular galaxy named IC 2458; and a face-on non-barred spiral galaxy called NGC 2805. Collectively, the four galaxies make up a galaxy group known as Holmberg 124.

These galaxies are sometimes referred to as a group of ‘late-type galaxies’. These neighbouring spiral and irregular galaxies, classified as “late-type," stand in contrast to elliptical galaxies, which are commonly referred to as “early-type." It is widely believed that Edwin Hubble inaccurately thought that elliptical galaxies were the evolutionary precursors to spiral and irregular galaxies, and that is the reason why ellipticals are classed as early-type and spirals and irregulars are classed as late-type.

But it is interesting to note that the misconceptions persist despite Hubble’s original intention. He explicitly said in a 1927 paper that “the nomenclature … [early and late] … refers to the position in the sequence, and temporal connotations are made at one’s peril." The misconception is due to the Hubble tuning fork of galactic classification, which visually shows galaxy types proceeding from elliptical to spiral, in a sequence that could easily be interpreted as a temporal evolution.