A Distant, Delicate Spiral

This image shows the spiral galaxy NGC 5037 in the constellation of Virgo. First documented by William Herschel in 1785, the galaxy lies about 150 million light-years away from Earth. Despite this distance, we can see the delicate structures of gas and dust within the galaxy in extraordinary detail. This detail is possible using Hubble's Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), whose combined exposures created this image. WFC3 is a very versatile camera, as it can collect ultraviolet, visible, and infrared light, thereby providing a wealth of information about the objects it observes.