Image Credit: NASA/ESO/ESA
This stunning. sparkly collection of stars is called ESO 121-6:; it can be found approximately 65 million light-years from Earth in the constellation of Pictor.
In an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, we see this island universe from a side-on vantage point, which prevents us from seeing some of the features that make it a spiral galaxy. Things that are noticeably absent include sweeping spiral arms, however, it does put us in the unique position to see the full length of the galaxy, and its glowing central bulge — where a large quantity of stars packed densely in a small region reside.
[box style="0"] Tendrils of dark dust can be seen across the frame, partially obscuring the bright center of the galaxy and continuing out towards the smattering of stars at its edges, where the dust lanes and shapes melt into the inky background. Numerous nearby stars and galaxies are visible as small smudges in the surrounding sky, and the brightest stars are dazzlingly prominent towards the bottom left of the image.
ESO 121-6 is a galaxy with patchy, loosely-wound arms and a relatively faint central bulge. It actually belongs to a group of galaxies, a clump of no more than 50 similar structures all loosely bound to one another by gravity. The Milky Way is also a member of a galactic group, known as the Local Group.
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