The “Godzilla galaxy” is believed to hold at least 10 times as many stars as our Milky Way galaxy. Officially known as UGC 2885, NASA’s Hubble photographed the behemoth from a distance of 232 million light-years.
Sitting at the hear of the spinning galaxy is a supermassive black hole, much like the Milky Way.
But despite its terrifying nickname, the galaxy is considered a “gentle giant” of sorts.
UGC 2885 is 2.5 times bigger than the Milky Way but has been seemingly sluggish for billions of years.
The galaxy is churning out new stars at a “modest” rate and does not appear to be consuming smaller, nearby galaxies.
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NASA said: “This majestic spiral galaxy might earn the nickname the ‘Godzilla galaxy’ because it may be the largest known in the local universe.
“The galaxy, UGC 2885, is 2.5 times wider than our Milky Way and contains 10 times as many stars.
“But it is a ‘gentle giant’, say researchers, because it looks like it has been sitting quietly over billions of years, possibly sipping hydrogen from the filamentary structure of intergalactic space.”
By syphoning the cosmic hydrogen, the galaxy draws in the fuel it needs to create new stars.
But UGC 2885 is only doing so at about half the rate of the Milky Way.
The cosmic monster has also been called “Rubin’s galaxy” in honour of the astronomer Vera Rubin.
At 232 million light-years away, the galaxy sits about 1,363,841,100,000,000,000,000 miles from Earth.
You should be able to spot the galaxy in the northern constellation Perseus.
In NASA’s Hubble picture, you can see the brightest star lighting up the galactic disc of UGC 2885.
Behind the galaxy is a starlit field of other galaxies, including a nearby one in the top right corner.