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Hubble Captures Galactic Glamour Shot

AWOOO! 🐺 Our NASA's Hubble Space Telescope took this image of a spiral galaxy in the constellation Lupus, the Wolf.

The galaxy is about 60 million light-years away from Earth and required 30 different exposures and 9 hours of observation time to capture.

A Read by: NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration

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NGC 5643 is about 60 million light-years away from Earth and has been the host of a recent supernova event (not visible in this latest image). This supernova (2017cbv) was a specific type in which a white dwarf steals so much mass from a companion star that it becomes unstable and explodes. The explosion releases significant amounts of energy and lights up that part of the galaxy.

The observation was proposed by Adam Riess, who (alongside Saul Perlmutter and Brian Schmidt) was awarded a Nobel Prize in physics in 2011 for his contributions to the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe.

Read more at: https://go.nasa.gov/34u6HSh

Here's what it looks like when one galaxy passes right through another. The galaxy on the right has an expanding ring of stars (like a shockwave), while the other has been stretched out! And do forgive the low resolution of the image, these are 500 million light years away.

A Read by: Dr. James O'Donoghue | Planetary Scientist

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There are many examples of galaxies interacting out there, here's more. Credit: Hubble/NASA/ ESA/ STScI/AURA