Galaxies Galore

May 9 to May 27, 2022
Hubble shared new galaxy images and videos to better explain the nature of these spectacular cosmic neighborhoods.

Two, face-on spiral galaxies. the larger one is centered in the image. the smaller one is superimposed on the upper left side of the larger.

Hubble's Galaxies Galore

The galaxy's nucleus is visible here as a bright, whitish patch, surrounded by a mixture of bluish-white stars and blackish clouds of gas and dust.

Caldwell 62

Caldwell 62 (also known as NGC 247) is a dwarf spiral galaxy located about 11 million light-years away.

A strange ring galaxy

Sonification: Hoag’s Object

Hoag’s Object is slightly larger than the Milky Way. The sonification takes data from this image and represents it with sound.

On the left side of the image is a spiral galaxy, on the right the inset shows a zoom in with dark red stars and dust and gas.

Caldwell 5

Caldwell 5 is a spiral galaxy located approximately 11 million light-years from Earth.

The oval glow of a bright galaxy with a brighter central core is cut through by a dark brown stripe of dust slashing neatly through its core from left to right.

A Small Sombrero for Hubble

 From our perspective, the “Little Sombrero” is a galaxy that we see from the side or edge-on.

A field of galaxies. a large elliptical galaxy in the top left quadrant, with more distant galaxies visible through its fringes.

Hubble Captures Giant Elliptical in the Head of the Serpent

UGC 10143 is an elliptical galaxy some 486 million light-years away.

A bright red galaxy shines near the top of the image in shades of pink and white.

Sonification: NGC 1569

This starburst galaxy creates stars at a rate 100 times faster than the Milky Way! The sonification takes data from this image and represents it with sound.

A bright star at image center, above it are two galaxies merging with bright blue star forming regions. a stream of blue-white stars trails off to the bottom of the image just left of center to another dwarf galaxy at the bottom of the image.

Hubble Reveals a River of Star Formation

This image of the Hickson Compact Group 31 of galaxies highlights streams of star-formation as four dwarf galaxies interact.

Bright, white diffuse sphere with an extremely bright core. diffuse shells of matter form layers around the core

Hubble Peers Through Giant Elliptical’s Layers

This image captures the central region of the gigantic elliptical galaxy NGC 474. 

Large lens-like diffuse galaxy with bright core. a cloud of blue gas and stars on its lower left edge

Hubble Focuses on a Large Lenticular

This image looks at one of the nearest, massive lenticular galaxies to Earth, NGC 1023 some 36 million light-years away. 

Two, face-on spiral galaxies. the larger one is centered in the image. the smaller one is superimposed on the upper left side of the larger.

Hubble Captures a Peculiar Pair

This image of IC 4271, also known as Arp 40, is a curious pair of spiral galaxies some 800 million light-years away. 

Two galaxies, each has a bright-white core. Their cores are very close together. They are surrounded by light blue gas, dust, and stars that form a ring around the cores.

Sonification: Twin Galaxies AM 2026-424

This Hubble image of two galaxies colliding resembles a face. The sonification takes data from this image and represents it with sound.

Center, right: bright, white elliptical galaxy with very bright core from which a diffuse glow extends outward. another bright, smaller/more distant galaxy is below it, while bright blue/white irregular is to its lower left.

NGC 541 Fuels an Irregular Galaxy in New Hubble Image

This striking pair is an elliptical galaxy NGC 541 and an unusual star-forming, irregular dwarf galaxy.

Right two-thirds of the image: nearly spherical galaxy with bright core (center right), horizontal dust lane bisects the galaxy, gas and dust loop extends to lower left of the galaxy

Hubble Views A Twisted Spiral

NGC 3718 is a highly disturbed spiral galaxy with an unusual, warped shape that looks a bit like a plump letter “s” from Earth.

Lower left: large spiral galaxy with reddish brown dust lanes extends toward the center of the image. center right: bright elliptical galaxy

Hubble Captures a Galactic Dance

NGC 3227 is wrapped in a turbulent gravitational dance with its companion, the elliptical galaxy NGC 3226. 

Image center holds the an oval of stars that mark the galaxy's center. Arms extend toward the upper-left and lower right of the central bulge of stars. Extending beyond the ends of each of these arms is are long curving tails that swirl above and below the galaxy.

Sonification: NGC 1300

Spiral galaxy NGC 1300’s arms hold blue clusters of young stars, pink clouds of star formation, and dark lanes of dust. The sonification takes data from this image and represents it with sound.

Spiral galaxy bisects the image from center left to bottom right. the lower left corner of the image is blacked out, a wfpc2 artifact.

Hubble Views an Interacting Spiral

This image features the spiral galaxy NGC 3509 located some 350 million light-years away.

Upper left: nearly edge on spiral with bright-white core, reddish brown-dust lanes, and pinkish-white spiral arms. lower right: another nearly edge-on spiral sitting perpendicular to the lower right corner.

Hubble Captures Pair of Star-Forming Spirals

This pair, known collectively as Arp 303, reside some 275 million light-years away.

Hubble's Field Guide to Galaxies will help you identify these star-filed splendors in all of their magnificent forms. Credit: NASA GSFC; Lead Producer: Miranda Chabot; Lead Writer: Andrea Gianopoulos

Hubble's Galaxies

These collections of stars, planets, gas, dust, and dark matter are the visible foundation of the universe.

Our galaxy, the Milky Way, sits in a Local Group of more than 20 galaxies, but Hubble's vision takes us far beyond our celestial neighborhood.

Learn More
A spiral galaxy with a glowing yellow center. Its spiral arms are full of dark reddish-brown lanes of dust and faint purple stars.
M63, also known as the Sunflower Galaxy, is a type of galaxy called a flocculent spiral. Flocculent spiral galaxies appears to have many discontinuous spiral arms.
ESA/Hubble & NASA