A spiral galaxy filling the view. Its disk holds many bright red spots where stars are forming, dark reddish threads of dust that obscure light, and bluish glowing areas that hold concentrations of older stars. It has a large, glowing yellow oval area at the center, from which two spiral arms wind through the galaxy’s disk. One side of the disk appears rounded (bottom of the image) while the opposite side appears somewhat squared-off (top of the image).

Hubble Images NGC 1637

The subject of this NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image is NGC 1637, a spiral galaxy located 38 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Eridanus, the River. NGC 1637 holds evidence of star formation scattered throughout its disk, if you know where to look. The galaxy’s spiral arms have pockets of pink clouds, many with bright blue stars. The pinkish color comes from hydrogen atoms excited by ultraviolet light from young, massive stars forming within the clouds. This contrasts with the warm yellow glow of the galaxy’s center, which is home to a densely packed collection of older, redder stars.

Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker
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Image CreditESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker
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