Check out this galactic glamour shot captured by NASA's Hubble telescope

The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured this beautiful shot featuring NGC 5643 - a spiral galaxy that lies about 60 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Lupus (The Wolf).

NGC 5643 spans about 100 thousand light years across and can be seen with a small telescope. The galaxy has been the host of a recent supernova event - 2017cbv - which was a specific type in which a white dwarf steals so much mass from a companion star that it becomes unstable and explodes. The explosion releases significant amounts of energy and lights up that part of the galaxy.

This stunning #HubbleTopImage features the spiral galaxy NGC 5643. Thirty different exposures, for a total of 9 hours observation time were needed to produce an image of such high level of detail and of beauty.🔗 https://t.co/bRfpnlc2OO pic.twitter.com/KXf6Pq10Q0

— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) August 4, 2022

As shown in this Hubble image, NGC 5643's appearance is dominated by blue spiral arms and brown dust. This beautiful and detailed image is a result of thirty different exposures, for a total of 9 hours of observation time, together with the high resolution and clarity of the Hubble telescope.

The observation was proposed by Adam Riess, who was awarded a Nobel Laureate in physics 2011 for his contributions to the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe, alongside Saul Perlmutter and Brian Schmidt.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA). Its science operations are co-ordinated and conducted by the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in Baltimore.

Since its launch in 1990, Hubble has been beaming back stunning images of the cosmos. According to NASA, the premium space-based observatory has made more than 1.5 million observations of about 50,000 celestial objects in its 32+ years of operation.