This galaxy has lost almost all the gas and dust from its signature spiral arms

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope picture shows NGC 1947, an unusual lenticular galaxy that has lost almost all the gas and dust from its signature spiral arms, which used to orbit around its centre.

Lenticular galaxies have qualities of both elliptical and spiral galaxies, but they don't have much gas and dust, and also have mainly old stars. They get their names from their edge-on appearance that resembles a lens.

Located around 40 million light-years away from Earth, NGC 1947 can only be seen from the southern hemisphere, in the constellation Dorado (The Dolphinfish). In this Hubble image, the faint remnants of the galaxy's spiral arms can still be made out in the stretched thin threads of dark gas encircling it.

Sharing the image, the European Space Agency said, "Without most of its star-forming material, it is unlikely that many new stars will be born within NGC 1947, leaving this galaxy to continue fading with time."

NGC 1947 was discovered almost 200 years ago by James Dunlop, a Scottish-born astronomer.

This #HubbleTopImage features the lenticular galaxy NGC 1947. It has lost almost all the gas and dust from its signature spiral arms, which used to orbit around its centre.🔗 https://t.co/CBIMSe0TuMCredit: @esa / @HUBBLE_space / @NASA , D. RosarioAcknowledgement: L. Shatz pic.twitter.com/Q9fIZVR6YY

— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) July 28, 2022

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope is a premium space-based observatory that has made more than 1.5 million observations of about 50,000 celestial objects in its 32+ years of operation. Launched on 24 April 1990, the telescope has beamed back hundreds of thousands of images to help unravel many of the great mysteries of the universe.

Hubble's vision spans the ultraviolet through visible and into the near-infrared and its suite of science instruments includes the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), Cosmic Origins Spectrograph (COS), Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS), Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS) and the Fine Guidance Sensors (FGS).