Dazzling spiral with an active heart

ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a magnificent face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77. The image does justice to the galaxy's beauty, showcasing its glittering arms criss-crossed with dust lanes—but ...

A galaxy on the edge

Spiral galaxies throughout the Universe take on all manner of orientations with respect to Earth. We see some from above (as it were) or "face-on"—a good example of this being the whirlpool-shaped galaxy NGC 1232. Such ...

Hubble sees spiral in Andromeda

The Andromeda constellation is one of the 88 modern constellations and should not be confused with our neighboring Andromeda Galaxy. The Andromeda constellation is home to the pictured galaxy known as NGC 7640.

Hubble chases a small stellar galaxy in the Hunting Dog

On a clear evening in April of 1789, the renowned astronomer William Herschel continued his unrelenting survey of the night sky, hunting for new cosmic objects—and found cause to celebrate! He spotted this bright spiral ...

Image: Hubble explores the hidden dark side of NGC 24

This shining disk of a spiral galaxy sits approximately 25 million light-years away from Earth in the constellation of Sculptor. Named NGC 24, the galaxy was discovered by British astronomer William Herschel in 1785, and ...

Surprise: Small elliptical galaxy actually a giant disk

Astronomers have believed since the 1960s that a galaxy dubbed UGC 1382 was a relatively boring, small elliptical galaxy. Ellipticals are the most common type of galaxy and lack the spiral structure of disks like the Milky ...

Hubble spies a spiral snowflake

Together with irregular galaxies, spiral galaxies make up approximately 60 percent of the galaxies in the local universe. However, despite their prevalence, each spiral galaxy is unique—like snowflakes, no two are alike. ...

Hubble views a young elliptical galaxy

At the center of this amazing Hubble image is the elliptical galaxy NGC 3610. Surrounding the galaxy are a wealth of other galaxies of all shapes. There are spiral galaxies, galaxies with a bar in their central regions, distorted ...

Hubble views a lonely galaxy

Only three local stars appear in this image, quartered by right-angled diffraction spikes. Everything besides them is a galaxy; floating like a swarm of microbes in a drop of water, and brought into view here not by a microscope, ...

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