Hubble Space Telescope captures spiral galaxy located 30 million light-years away

The Hubble Space Telescope has imaged a stunning spiral galaxy located about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Leo, NASA said. Spiral galaxies combine whirling, pinwheeling arms with scatterings of sparkling stars, glowing bursts of gas, and dark, weaving lanes of cosmic dust, according to a statement by the US space agency.

These limelight-hogging celestial objects create awesome scenes -- especially when viewed through a telescope such as the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The image from Hubble frames a perfect spiral specimen: the stunning NGC 2903, NASA said.

NGC 2903 is located about 30 million light-years away in the constellation of Leo (the Lion), it said. The galaxy was studied as part of a Hubble survey of the central regions of roughly 145 nearby disk galaxies.

This study aimed to help astronomers better understand the relationship between the black holes that lurk at the cores of galaxies like these, and the rugby-ball-shaped bulge of stars, gas and dust at the galaxy's centre.

(With inputs from agencies.)