This glittering Hubble Space Telescope image shows the spiral galaxy IC 5332, which lies about 30 million light-years away in the constellation Sculptor, and has an almost face-on orientation to Earth.
To explain what is meant by ‘face-on’, it is helpful to visualise a spiral galaxy as an (extremely) large disc. If the galaxy is oriented so that it appears circular and disc-shaped from our perspective here on Earth, then we can say that it is ‘face-on’. In contrast, if it is oriented so that it appears squashed and oval-shaped, then we would say that it is ‘edge-on’. The key thing is that the same galaxy would look extremely different from our perspective depending on whether it was face-on or edge-on as seen from Earth.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Chandar, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST team
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Hubble has captured the festive bundle of lights known as UGC 8091. UGC 8091, also known as GR 8, lies around seven million light-years from Earth in the constellation Virgo. It is a dwarf irregular galaxy: a comparatively small, low-mass galaxy without a distinct or uniform shape.
The blossoming patches of red represent light emitted by excited hydrogen molecules in hot, energetic stars that have formed in recent starbursts. The other glittering lights on show are a mix of older stars.
Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, ESA, Yumi Choi (NSF's NOIRLab), Karoline Gilbert (STScI), Julianne Dalcanton (Center for Computational Astrophysics/Flatiron Inst., UWashington)
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This Hubble Space Telescope image features a bright spiral galaxy known as MCG-01-24-014, which is located about 275 million light-years from Earth. In addition to being a well-defined spiral galaxy, MCG-01-24-014 has an extremely energetic core, known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), so it is referred to as an active galaxy.
Even more specifically, it is categorised as a Type-2 Seyfert galaxy. Seyfert galaxies host one of the most common subclasses of AGN, alongside quasars. Seyfert galaxies tend to be relatively nearby ones where the host galaxy remains plainly detectable alongside its central AGN, while quasars are very distant AGNs whose incredible luminosities outshine their host galaxies.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick
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This Hubble image displays NGC 2814, an irregular galaxy that lies about 85 million light years from Earth. The galaxy appears to be quite isolated: visually, it looks a little like a loose stroke of bright paint across a dark background. However, looks can be deceiving. NGC 2814 actually has three close (in astronomical terms) galactic neighbors: a side-on spiral galaxy known as NGC 2820; an irregular galaxy named IC 2458; and a face-on non-barred spiral galaxy called NGC 2805. Collectively, the four galaxies make up a galaxy group known as Holmberg 124.
Credit: SA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick
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This dream-like Hubble Space Telescope image features the galaxy known as NGC 3156. It is a lenticular galaxy, meaning that it falls somewhere between an elliptical and a spiral galaxy. It lies about 73 million light-years from Earth, in the minor equatorial constellation Sextans.
NGC 3156 has been studied in many ways other than determining its precise position — from its cohort of globular clusters, to its relatively recent star formation, to the stars that are being destroyed by the supermassive black hole at its center.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Sharples,
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