The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope has produced this stunning image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 2608.
This Hubble image shows NGC 2608, a barred spiral galaxy located 64 million light-years away in the constellation Cancer. The picture was created from images taken with Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). It combines observations gathered in four different filters, bringing together visible and infrared light to show off this galaxy in all its glory. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Riess et al.
NGC 2608 resides some 64 million light-years away in the constellation of Cancer.
The galaxy was discovered by the German-born British astronomer William Herschel on March 12, 1785.
Otherwise known as LEDA 24111, Arp 12 and UGC 4484, it has a diameter of 62,000 light-years.
“Appearing as a slightly stretched, smaller version of our Milky Way Galaxy, the peppered blue and red spiral arms of NGC 2608 are anchored together by its prominent horizontal central bar,” Hubble astronomers said.
Several very distant galaxies are visible in this Hubble image and a pair of bright stars from the Milky Way sparkles in the foreground.
“In Hubble photos, bright Milky Way stars will sometimes appear as pinpoints of light with prominent lens flares,” the astronomers explained.
“A star with these features is seen in the lower right corner of the image, and another can be spotted just above the pale center of NGC 2608.”
“The majority of the fainter points around NGC 2608, however, lack these features, and upon closer inspection they are revealed to be thousands of distant galaxies.”
“NGC 2608 is just one among an uncountable number of kindred structures,” they said.
