Hubble sees nearby dwarf galaxy resembling a hazy patch of passing cloud

A wide band of bluish light speckled with many tiny stars and a few bright red bubbles of gas dominates this celestial landscape captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The picture features UGCA 307, a small galaxy that lies roughly 26 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Corvus.

Appearing as just a small patch of stars, UGCA 307 is a diminutive dwarf galaxy without a defined structure - resembling a hazy patch of passing cloud. The red gas bubbles mark regions of recent star formation

The background is deep black, punctuated by small galaxies and stars scattered throughout.

Our Picture of the Week features nearby galaxy UGCA 307. The image is part of a Hubble project to explore every known nearby galaxy, giving astronomers insights into our galactic neighbourhood 🧵👇 pic.twitter.com/pwCGPA9cW0

— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) March 13, 2023

This picture was captured by Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) as part of a Hubble project to explore every known galaxy in our neighbourhood. Prior to this set of observations, the telescope had extensively investigated nearly three-quarters of the nearby galaxies, allowing astronomers to identify the brightest stars and gain insights into the stellar populations of each galaxy

This Hubble project aimed to investigate the remaining quarter of nearby galaxies by utilizing brief interruptions in Hubble's observing schedule.

Installed on the Hubble during Servicing Mission 3B in 2002, the Advanced Camera for Surveys is designed to obtain high-resolution images of celestial objects in visible, ultraviolet, and near-infrared light. Its exceptional image quality and sensitivity have facilitated numerous pioneering discoveries, such as detecting the first exoplanet beyond our solar system, identifying dark energy, and detecting the farthest galaxy known at that time.

As of this writing, Hubble has been serviced by five Space Shuttle missions, between 1993 and 2009, which have helped to maintain its position at the forefront of astronomy.