Area picture of the week: Swirling ‘Spanish Dancer Galaxy’ stares down NASA’s Hubble

What it’s: spiral galaxy NGC 1566. When it was once taken: Nov. 3, 2023. The place it’s: 60 million light-years away within the constellation Dorado. Why it is so particular: NGC 1566 is a spiral galaxy whose twirling hands of stars impressed its casual nickname: the “Spanish Dancer.” The Dancer is without doubt one of the maximum visually impressive galaxies we will see, in large part as a result of its orientation. Whilst some galaxies are noticed side-on from Earth — that means we handiest see the thinnest a part of the galaxy — NGC 1566 is noticed face-on, making its bulge and spiral hands obviously visual.This symbol of NGC 1566 from the Hubble Area Telescope displays two spiral hands of stars and lanes of darkish mud swirling from a sparkling galactic core, the place the mud seems to separate into fibers. Shiny red areas sparkle alongside the spiral hands the place new stars are forming.Round 60% of galaxies are spirals like NGC 1566, together with our Milky Manner. Spiral galaxies are house to stars which can be, on moderate, a lot more youthful than the ones in different galaxies. In line with NASA, spiral galaxies would possibly evolve into elliptical galaxies, that are much less structured and the place stars are older — in all probability after colliding or merging with different spiral galaxies.The picture of NGC 1566, taken the use of Hubble’s Extensive Box Digicam 3 — one among its two major cameras — will also be downloaded in as much as 16-megapixel high quality. There may be a web based zoomable model.Hubble introduced in 1990 and has been orbiting Earth for 33 years. It entered protected mode in overdue November after struggling issues of one among its 3 gyroscopes, which assist it flip and lock directly to new objectives. Then again, it resumed science operations on Dec. 8, consistent with NASA.

Author: OpenAI