Spiral Galaxies

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In the center is a large, oval-shaped galaxy, with a shining, ringed core. Left of its center is a second, smaller galaxy with two spiral arms. The galaxy pair is so close that they appear to be merging: a tail of material with a few glowing spots connects from one of the smaller galaxy’s spiral arms to the larger galaxy. A faint halo surrounds both galaxies. Several stars are visible around the pair.

Hubble Takes a Look at Tangled Galaxies

2 min read

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image depicts the cosmic tangle that is MCG+05-31-045, a pair of interacting galaxies located 390…

Article6 days ago
Labeled “Artist’s Concept” at bottom right, the graphic shows a closeup of a dwarf galaxy, which appears roughly circular with a light-yellow bar in the center. Faint, blue, wispy, cloud-like features surround this yellow bar, and they are sprinkled with tiny white specks. A wide, wispy, purple arc appears to the left of the galaxy. Trailing the galaxy is a large, faint, wide, tail-like feature.

NASA’s Hubble Sees Aftermath of Galaxy’s Scrape with Milky Way

5 min read

A story of survival is unfolding at the outer reaches of our galaxy, and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope is witnessing…

Article7 days ago
A spiral galaxy with an oval-shaped disk. Two large arms curve out away from the ends of the disk. Bright pink patches and dark reddish threads of dust fill the arms. The bright pink patches indicate where stars are forming. The core is very bright and filled with stars. Some large stars appear in front of the galaxy. Directly under the point where the right arm joins the disk, a fading supernova is visible as a green dot.

Hubble Captures a Galaxy with Many Lights

2 min read

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features NGC 1672, a barred spiral galaxy located 49 million light-years from Earth in…

Article2 weeks ago
Two spiral galaxies take the shape of a colorful beaded mask that sits above the nose. The galaxy at left, IC 2163, is smaller, taking up a little over a quarter of the view. The galaxy at right, NGC 2207, takes up half the view, with its spiral arms reaching the edges. IC 2163 has a bright orange core, with two prominent spiral arms that rotate counter clockwise and become straighter towards the ends, the left side extending almost to the edge. Its arms are a mix of pink, white, and blue, with an area that takes the shape of an eyelid appearing whitest. NGC 2207 has a very bright core. Overall, it appears to have larger, thicker spiral arms that spin counter clockwise. This galaxy also contains more and larger blue areas of star formation that poke out like holes from the pink spiral arms. In the middle, the galaxies’ arms appear to overlap. The edges show the black background of space, including extremely distant galaxies that look like orange and red smudges, and a few foreground stars.

‘Blood-Soaked’ Eyes: NASA’s Webb, Hubble Examine Galaxy Pair

5 min read

Stare deeply at these galaxies. They appear as if blood is pumping through the top of a flesh-free face. The…

Article3 weeks ago
A spiral galaxy. It has a bright core with light spilling out. Its disk holds thick clumps of dark reddish dust, which swirls around the galaxy following its rotation. Brighter and hotter stars, shown in blue, speckle parts of the disk. A halo of faint gas wraps around the galaxy, extending beyond the edges of the image.

Hubble Captures a New View of Galaxy M90

2 min read

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image features the striking spiral galaxy Messier 90 (M90, also NGC 4569), located in the…

Article1 month ago
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.

Hubble Spots a Grand Spiral of Starbursts

2 min read

The sparkling scene depicted in this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is of the spiral galaxy NGC 5248, located 42…

Article1 month ago

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