1 min read

Hubble Snags Starry Galaxy

Ngc 4380, hubble image
Ngc 4380, hubble image. Bright white center with dust and gas orbiting it
ESA/Hubble & NASA, P. Erwin

In this image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, the galaxy NGC 4380 looks like a special effect straight out of a science fiction or fantasy film, swirling like a gaping portal to another dimension.

In the grand scheme of things, though, the galaxy is actually quite ordinary. Spiral galaxies like NGC 4380 are common in the universe. These colossal collections of stars, often numbering in the hundreds of billions, are shaped like a flat disk, sometimes with a rounded bulge in the center. Graceful spiral arms outlined by dark lanes of dust wind around the bulging core, which glows brightly and has the highest concentration of stars in the galaxy.

Text credit: ESA (European Space Agency)

Share

Details

Last Updated
Oct 04, 2023
Editor
NASA Hubble Mission Team
Contact
NASA Hubble Mission Team

Related Terms

Explore More

A close-up of a spiral galaxy, seen face-on. Its center is a bright white point, surrounded by a large yellowish oval with thin lines of dust swirling in it. From the sides of the oval emerge two bright spiral arms which wind through the round disk of the galaxy, filled with shining pink spots where stars are forming and more dark reddish dust. Many stars are visible in the foreground, over and around the galaxy.
2 min read

Hubble Images a Grand Spiral

Article2 days ago
4 min read

NASA Successfully Integrates Roman Mission’s Telescope, Instruments

NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope team has successfully integrated the mission’s telescope and two instruments onto the instrument carrier, marking the completion of the Roman payload. Now the team at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will begin joining the payload to the spacecraft. “We’re in the middle of an exciting stage […]

Article3 days ago
Light and dark blue splotches cover Earth as a yellow band streaks across the Pacific Ocean between Central America and Indonesia.
4 min read

NASA Study: Crops, Forests Responding to Changing Rainfall Patterns

Earth’s rainy days are changing: They’re becoming less frequent, but more intense. Vegetation is responding.

Article4 days ago
Keep Exploring

Discover More Topics From NASA

James Webb Space Telescope

The image is divided horizontally by an undulating line between a cloudscape forming a nebula along the bottom portion and a comparatively clear upper portion. Speckled across both portions is a starfield, showing innumerable stars of many sizes. The smallest of these are small, distant, and faint points of light. The largest of these appear larger, closer, brighter, and more fully resolved with 8-point diffraction spikes. The upper portion of the image is blueish, and has wispy translucent cloud-like streaks rising from the nebula below. The orangish cloudy formation in the bottom half varies in density and ranges from translucent to opaque. The stars vary in color, the majority of which have a blue or orange hue. The cloud-like structure of the nebula contains ridges, peaks, and valleys – an appearance very similar to a mountain range. Three long diffraction spikes from the top right edge of the image suggest the presence of a large star just out of view.

Perseverance Rover

Parker Solar Probe

Juno