1 min read

On Edge

NGC 5866

The disk galaxy NGC 5866 is tilted nearly edge on to our line of sight. Hubble’s sharp vision reveals a crisp dust lane dividing the galaxy into two halves. The image highlights the galaxy’s structure: a subtle, reddish bulge surrounding a bright nucleus, a blue disk of stars running parallel to the dust lane, and a transparent outer halo. The outer halo is dotted with numerous gravitationally bound globular clusters of nearly a million stars each. Background galaxies that are millions to billions of light-years farther away than NGC 5866 are also seen through the halo.

Image Credit: NASA

Share

Details

Last Updated
Apr 17, 2023
Editor
NASA Hubble Mission Team

Related Terms

Explore More

A close-in, face-on view of a spiral galaxy. It has two large arms that curve outward from the round, bright, central region to nearly the corners of the image. Channels of dark reddish dust that blocks light line the arms while bright pink, glowing points denote where stars are forming. Beyond its prominent spiral arms, the galaxy’s oval disk is generally cloudy in form and speckled with stars. A black background is visible behind it.
2 min read

Hubble Spots a Grand Spiral of Starbursts

Article5 days ago
A four-panel image. The top two panels are diagrams of Uranus – spheres with gridlines going longitudinally and latitudinally. On the top left, the view from Hubble, the southern pole of the planet faces 3 o’clock. On the top right, the view from New Horizons, the southern pole faces 10 o’clock. The bottom left panel is Hubble’s actual view of Uranus – the planet is a light blue sphere, with a white circle covering the right half of the planet (the southern pole). The bottom right panel is the actual view of Uranus from New Horizons. The planet appears as a tiny whiteish dot.
6 min read

NASA’s Hubble, New Horizons Team Up for a Simultaneous Look at Uranus

Article7 days ago
Eight Hubble images showing Jupiter's Great Red Spot as it changes over time from December 2023 to March 2024.
4 min read

NASA’s Hubble Watches Jupiter’s Great Red Spot Behave Like a Stress Ball

Article7 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