The latest Image of The Day from NASA shows a galaxy not too dissimilar to the Milky Way in a far flung corner of the universe. The stunning image shows gas and clouds and stars swirling in the universe in the form of a spiral galaxy. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope snapped the image of the galaxy known as IC 2051 which is a staggering 85 million light-years away.
To put that into perspective, that is 499,683,171,006,114,900,000 miles – almost 500 quintillion.
NASA said: “It is a spiral galaxy, as evidenced by its characteristic whirling, pinwheeling arms, and it has a bar of stars slicing through its centre.
“This galaxy was observed for a Hubble study on galactic bulges, the bright round central regions of spiral galaxies.
“Spiral galaxies like IC 2051 are shaped a bit like flying saucers when seen from the side; they comprise a thin, flat disk, with a bulky bulge of stars in the centre that extends above and below the disk.
“These bulges are thought to play a key role in how galaxies evolve, and to influence the growth of the supermassive black holes lurking at the centres of most spirals.
“While more observations are needed in this area, studies suggest that some, or even most, galactic bulges may be complex composite structures rather than simple ones, with a mix of spherical, disk-like, or boxy components, potentially leading to a wide array of bulge morphologies in the universe.”
The Hubble telescope will be retired in 2021 after more than 30 years of service, having been launched in 1990.
However, its successor, the more powerful James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), will take over.
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Through Hubble, experts have been able to view the formation of the first galaxies, about one billion years after the Big Bang.
However, as JWST is much more powerful, it will be able to see just 0.3 billion years after the Big Bang to when visible light itself was beginning to form.
JWST will also be situated much farther out in space than Hubble.
Hubble is placed in Earth’s orbit just 570,000 kilometres from the surface, but JWST will be placed an astonishing 1.5 million kilometres from Earth, meaning that if it breaks down while it is up there, it will not be able to be fixed.