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An almost circular galaxy is at the center of the image. It has a glowing bar stretching across its core; from the ends of the bar, thin spiral arms wrap around the galaxy to form a closed disk. The arms are fuzzy from the dust and stars they contain. The galaxy is on a black, mostly empty background. A few foreground stars with cross-shaped diffraction spikes can be seen, as well as some distant galaxies in the background.

Rings and Things

The subject of this week’s circular Hubble Picture of the Week is situated in the Perseus Cluster, also known as Abell 426, 320 million light-years from Earth. It’s a barred spiral galaxy known as MCG+07-07-072, seen here among a number of photobombing stars that are much closer to Earth than it is. MCG+07-07-072 has quite an unusual shape, for a spiral galaxy, with thin arms emerging from the ends of its barred core to draw a near-circle around its disc.

Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, I. Chilingari

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TakenAugust 12, 2024
Image CreditESA/Hubble & NASA, I. Chilingari
Size3988x2146px