Explanation:
Big, beautiful barred spiral galaxy
NGC 1300 lies some 70 million
light-years away on the banks of the
constellation
Eridanus.
This Hubble Space Telescope
composite view of the gorgeous island
universe was released at this week's meeting of the American Astronomical
Society as one of the
largest Hubble images ever made of a complete
galaxy.
NGC 1300
spans over 100,000 light-years and the Hubble
image reveals striking details of the galaxy's dominant
central bar and majestic spiral arms.
In fact, on close inspection
the nucleus of this classic barred
spiral itself shows a remarkable region of
spiral structure
about 3,300 light-years across.
Unlike other spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way, NGC 1300
is not presently known to have a massive
central black hole.
