Galaxies always seem special simply because of their large size and collections of stars, planets, and usually a black hole, or sometimes more. They are definitely interesting, but some are clearly more attractive than others. The Hubble Space Telescope has captured impressive images of many galaxies during its long stay, but the image above that NASA has chosen to display is a true work of art.
The galaxy you see here is called NGC 2775, which is not a very catchy name, but the galaxy’s abundance of young stars and its delicate “feathered” pattern are really something to behold.
The galaxy is a true observer, with a huge open central sphere where not much happens. The outer ring of the galaxy is much more exciting, with countless young stars appearing blue in the image, and a wealth of material such as gases and dust. It is a galaxy that is really standing up, and is about 67 million light years away. That’s an incredible distance, and it makes this stunning image that much more noticeable.
NASA offers additional context:
“The spiral pattern shown by the galaxy in this image from the NASA / ESA Hubble Space Telescope is striking due to its delicate and feathery nature. These “flocculent” spiral arms indicate that the galaxy’s recent history of star formation, known as NGC 2775, has been relatively quiet. There is virtually no star formation in the central part of the galaxy, which is dominated by an unusually large and relatively empty galactic lump, where all the gas turned into stars a long time ago. “
The galaxy does not have well-defined “arms” like our Milky Way, but it is still considered a spiral galaxy due to its clear spiral pattern. This does not mean that this galaxy cannot evolve into something more similar to our own original galaxy, but from our point of view, it is full of baby stars and has a lot of life to live.
“Millions of bright, young blue stars shine in the complex feathery spiral arms, intertwined with dark lanes of dust,” says NASA. The complexes of these hot blue stars are believed to cause stars to form in nearby gas clouds. The general feather-like spiral patterns of the arms are formed by shearing the gas clouds as the galaxy rotates. The spiral nature of flocculent galaxies contrasts with the highly designed spirals, which have prominent, well-defined spiral arms. ”
On top of all that, it’s just a really glorious image, which is the icing on the cake.
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