Spiral Galaxies

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A spiral galaxy, seen face-on to the viewer. The bright center of the galaxy is crossed by a glowing bar, and it is surrounded by tightly wound spiral arms, forming a circular shape with relatively clear edges. Faraway galaxies are visible around it, along with a few bright stars, on a dark background. One star to the right of the galaxy is very large and extremely bright with long diffraction spikes.

Hubble Captures a Bright Galactic and Stellar Duo

2 min read

This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features NGC 3783, a bright barred spiral galaxy about 130 million light-years from Earth…

Article1 week ago
A spiral galaxy seen nearly face-on. The disk holds many tightly wound spiral arms. They contain small strands of reddish dust, near the center. On the left side, the disk features glowing patches of star formation. The whole right side, and part of the center, is obscured by a large cloud of dark grey gas which crosses the image.

Hubble Spots a Galaxy Hidden in a Dark Cloud

2 min read

The subject of this image taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is the spiral galaxy IC 4633, located 100…

Article2 weeks ago
Left: Messier 82 as imaged by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. Hour-glass-shaped red plumes of gas are shooting outward from above and below a bright blue, disk-shaped center of a galaxy. This galaxy is surrounded by many white stars and set against the black background of space. A small square highlights the section that the image on the right shows in greater detail. White text at bottom reads "Hubble." Right: A section of Messier 82 as imaged by NASA's James Webb Space Telescope. An edge-on spiral starburst galaxy with a bright white, glowing core set against the black background of space. A white band of the edge-on disk extends from lower left to upper right. Dark brown tendrils of dust are scattered thinly along this band. Many white points in various sizes – stars or star clusters – are scattered throughout the image, but are most heavily concentrated toward the center. Many clumpy, red filaments extend vertically above and below the galaxy’s plane. White text at bottom reads "Webb."

NASA’s Webb Probes an Extreme Starburst Galaxy

6 min read

Amid a site teeming with new and young stars lies an intricate substructure. A team of astronomers has used NASA’s…

Article3 weeks ago
A spiral galaxy, with two prominent, tightly wound arms around the brighter core. The arms disperse into a wide halo of stars and dust at their ends, giving the galaxy an oval shape. A number of bright, foreground stars appear to flank the galaxy, each holding the signature cross of diffracting light. The image also holds a few distant background galaxies.

Hubble Views a Dim but Distinct Galaxy

2 min read

This image of the softly luminous spiral galaxy UGC 11105 is from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. It lies about…

Article3 months ago
A scattered grouping of blue and violet stars shines near the lower half of the image. Distant galaxies fill the black background of space, and bright stars with diffraction spikes are visible throughout.

Hubble Captures a Suspected Galaxy Encounter

2 min read

UGC 3912 is classified as a spiral galaxy … but you wouldn’t know it from this detailed NASA Hubble Space…

Article3 months ago
A glowing, white galaxy shines at the center of the image, interlaced with dark brown dust. More distant galaxies and stars fill the black background of space.

Hubble Spies a Spinning Spiral

2 min read

Looking like a baseball lobbed into the depths of the universe, ESO 420-G013 is a face-on spiral galaxy and a…

Article3 months ago
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