A cosmic neighbour hidden in plain sight: Check out this latest Hubble image

A densely packed field of stars, laid on top of a dark background takes center stage in this latest picture from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.

The stars take up so much of the field of view that it is hard to realise that we are actually looking at a galaxy. The galaxy in question is named ESO 245-5 and it lies about 15 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Phoenix - a relatively close neighbour of our Milky Way galaxy.

ESO 245-5's apparent lack of structure also makes it hard to spot the galaxy. Unlike most of the galaxies spotted by the Hubble telescope, ESO 245-5, is classified as an IB(s)m type galaxy, which means that the galaxy is irregular (I), barred (B), has a slight spiral structure ((s)), and is of the Magellanic type (m).

• Irregular here means that the galaxy does not appear to have a regular, ordered structure, with the entire view being covered by the stars of this galaxy.
• Barred means that the galaxy has a barred shape at its centre - a dense stretch of stars that crosses through the centre of this image.
• The third term says that there are hints of a spiral structure, but nothing clear or definitive.
• Lastly, Magellanic type means ESO 245-5 is similar to the Magellanic clouds, the two dwarf galaxies that are close neighbours of the Milky Way.

📷 This NASA/ESA @HUBBLE_space image shows a densely packed field of stars, on a background of dust, gas and light from more distant objects. The stars take up so much of the view that it's hard to realise that you're actually looking at a galaxy (called ESO 245-5)! pic.twitter.com/oG52tcAfwa

— ESA (@esa) February 5, 2024