A spiral galaxy against black space. The galaxy's bright, yellow core is surrounded by spiraling arms laced with dark brown dust and pink and purple bursts of star formation.

M96

In this infrared and visible-light image from Hubble, the spiral galaxy M96 resembles a giant maelstrom of glowing gas, rippled with dark dust that swirls inward toward the nucleus. Its dust and gas are unevenly spread throughout its weak spiral arms, which are asymmetrical because of its gravitational interaction with neighboring galaxies. M96 is also remarkable for the location of its core, which is not exactly at the galactic center.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA and the LEGUS Team; Acknowledgment: R. Gendler