HUBBLE CAPTURES A BREATH-TAKING TRANSIT

This jaw-dropping photograph captured in space by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is that of a distant galaxy aligning with our neighboring star in the Milky Way to pass behind it. This event is called as a transit.

The distant galaxy called the "Vermin Galaxy" is visible as the smudge at the lower right of the picture. The star called HD 107146 is at the center of the frame. In order to make its immediate surroundings and the vague galaxy visible, the star’s light has been blocked in this image. The star’s position is marked in this picture with a green circle.

The concentric orange circle encircling HD 107146 is the circumstellar disk, a disk of rubbish circuiting the star. The star’s disk face-on is visible to us. Because of its resemblance to our sun, HD 107146 is an interesting scientific study target.  Its circumstellar disk is comparable to the Kuiper belt, and the asteroids in our Solar System.

Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys first observed the unusual pairing in 2004. Next time it was captured was by Hubble's Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph in 2011, when the Vermin Galaxy started its transit behind HD 107146. 

Content: www.sciencedaily.com