A spiral home to exploding stars

A spiral home to exploding stars

In this new Hubble image, we can see an almost face-on view of the galaxy NGC 1084. At first glance, this galaxy is pretty unoriginal. Like the majority of galaxies that we observe it is a spiral galaxy, and, as with about half of all spirals, it has no bar running through its loosely wound arms. However, although it may seem unremarkable on paper, NGC 1084 is actually a near-perfect example of this type of galaxy - and Hubble has a near-perfect view of it.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and S. Smartt (Queen's University Belfast)
Acknowledgement: Brian Campbell

http://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1413a

Music “Between Nothing and Everything” by Kai_Engel from Album Atlantida
http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Kai_Engel
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