The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has captured a striking photo of a bright, barred spiral galaxy called NGC 7513.
This Hubble image shows the barred spiral galaxy NGC 7513. The color image was made from separate exposures taken in the visible and infrared regions of the spectrum with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). Three filters were used to sample various wavelengths. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Stiavelli.
NGC 7513 is located approximately 56 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Sculptor.
Discovered on September 24, 1864 by the German astronomer Albert Marth, the galaxy has a diameter of around 65,000 light-years.
Otherwise known as ESO 469-22, LEDA 70714 and UGCA 437, NGC 7513 is a member of the Grus-Indus galaxy cluster.
“While some galaxies, like the Milky Way and the Andromeda Galaxy, are caught in each other’s gravitational pull and will eventually merge together, the vast majority of galaxies in our Universe appear to be moving away from each other,” Hubble astronomers said.
“This phenomenon is due to the expansion of the Universe, and it is the space between galaxies that is stretching, rather than the galaxies themselves moving.”
“NGC 7513 is moving at the astounding speed of 1,564 km per second (3.5 million mph), and it is heading away from us,” they added.
“For context, the Earth orbits the Sun at about 30 km per second (over 67,000 mph).”
“Though NGC 7513’s apparent movement away from the Milky Way might seem strange, it is not that unusual.”
