The spiral galaxy NGC 691 is the namesake of the NGC 691 galaxy group, a collection of gravitationally bound galaxies located approximately 120 million light-years from Earth. Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess, Acknowledgment: M. Zamani
This image features the spiral galaxy NGC 691, imaged in fantastic detail by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). This galaxy is the eponymous member of the NGC 691 galaxy group, a group of gravitationally bound galaxies that lie about 120 million light-years from Earth.
Objects such as NGC 691 are observed by Hubble using a range of filters. Each filter only allows certain wavelengths of light to reach Hubble’s WFC3. The images collected using different filters are then colored by specialized visual artists who can make informed choices about which color best corresponds to which filter. By combining the colored images from individual filters, a full-color image of the astronomical object can be recreated. In this way, we can get remarkably good insight into the nature and appearance of these objects.
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