Hubble photographed galaxy in constellation Serpent

The Hubble mission support team has published a spectacular new image taken by the space telescope. This time, the spiral galaxy NGC 5921 got into the picture.

Galaxy NGC 5921. Source: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Walsh

NGC 5921 is located at a distance of 80 million light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Serpent. In its structure, it resembles the Milky Way. In the Hubble photo, we can see a strip of stars and gas crossing the center of the galaxy. It is called a bar. It is believed that about two-thirds of spiral galaxies (including ours) have a similar structure. 

Spiral arms of NGC 5921 “grow” from the bar. They are densely strewn with clusters of young stars and a web of dark “veins” consisting of dust. A supernova outbreak was also observed in NGC 5921 in 2001.

The NGC 5921 image was taken as part of a scientific project in which, in addition to Hubble, the Gemini Observatory participated. Its main task was to study the influence of supermassive black holes on galaxies. The purpose of the Hubble telescope was to determine the mass of the stellar population of NGC 5921, as well as to collect calibration data.

In conclusion, we note that the constellation Serpent, in which NGC 5921 is located, is unique in that it consists of two unrelated parts, called the “Head of the snake” and the “Tail of the snake”. They are separated by another constellation called Ophiuchus.

Recall that Hubble recently photographed the most distant star in the Universe.

According to https://esahubble.org

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