Hubble captures a gorgeous galaxy 130 million light-years from Earth


Devdiscourse News Desk | California | Updated: 30-09-2022 21:30 IST | Created: 30-09-2022 21:30 IST
Hubble captures a gorgeous galaxy 130 million light-years from Earth
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al

This latest image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a lonely spiral galaxy called UGC 9391. The gorgeous spiral galaxy is located a whopping 130 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco near the north celestial pole.

The star-studded spiral arms of UGC 9391 stand in splendid isolation against a backdrop of distant galaxies, which are only visible as indistinct swirls or smudges thanks to their vast distances from Earth.

Also visible in this Hubble image are some much brighter foreground stars closer to home. These bright nearby stars are ringed with diffraction spikes - prominent spikes caused by light interacting with the inner workings of the telescope's secondary mirror supports.

Captured using the Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3), this image is from a set of Hubble observations which astronomers used to construct the "Cosmic Distance Ladder" - a set of connected measurements that allow astronomers to determine how far the most distant astronomical objects are. 

The Hubble Space Telescope is a project of international cooperation between NASA and the European Space Agency. The Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) conducts its science operations.

The premium space-based observatory has been beaming back stunning images of the cosmos since 1990, advancing the scientific community's understanding of the mysterious universe.

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