NASA telescope observes a spiral galaxy 350 million light-years away from Earth

NASA's latest Galaxies Galore image features NGC 3509, a spiral galaxy whose sweeping tidal tail (not visible in this picture) offers hints of its evolution. Snapped by the Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2 on the Hubble Space Telescope, the interesting galaxy lies some 350 million light-years away from Earth and is actively creating new stars.

The Hubble observation revealed that NGC 3509 has a single, relatively undisturbed nucleus surrounded by a swirl of dust lanes, suggesting that the galaxy has not undergone a major disk-to-disk merger. The galaxy may have had a minor merger with a smaller galaxy, or it may be interacting with a small companion whose gravity is creating the tidal tail, NASA said.

The observation was part of a study that looked at the physical conditions in strongly interacting and merging galaxy nuclei. The color red in this image represents near-infrared wavelengths of light and showcases star-forming regions along the galaxy's spiral arms.

Sharing the image, NASA said that three of the camera’s four detectors imaged “wide fields,” while the fourth had higher resolution but covered a smaller portion of the sky. When combined, the “step” effect resulted - the areas where Hubble observations weren't taken.

Hello, NGC 3509! In this #GalaxiesGalore image, Hubble captured a spiral galaxy that's about 350 million light-years away.Like most spiral galaxies, NGC 3509 is actively creating new stars. Read more: https://t.co/rhQA7F6mSU pic.twitter.com/Q18haNGuwO

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) May 26, 2022

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was launched and deployed by the space shuttle Discovery in 1990. Since then, it has been beaming back stunning images of the cosmos.