Hubble images reveal galaxy similar to Milky Way
CBC News
Posted: Feb 3, 2012 4:34 PM ET
Last Updated: Feb 7, 2012 12:36 PM ET
The Hubble Space Telescope took this image of the barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Cetus. (NASA/ESA)
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The Hubble Space Telescope has taken a picture of a barred spiral galaxy — a galaxy similar to our own and expected to give astronomers a better insight into the Milky Way.
The galaxy, known as NGC 1073, is part of the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster) and located about 55 million light years away. The Milky Way is a similar barred spiral.
Most spiral galaxies in the universe have star-filled bar structures, which are made up of dense lines of stars at the galaxies' centres, according to Space.com.
The bars turn up more often in galaxies full of older, red stars than younger, blue stars.
Only a fifth of spiral galaxies contained bars in the early universe, while more than two-thirds of those galaxies contain bars now, according to the Hubble/ESA website.
The images also show three “bright points of light" that are quasars and considered "some of the most distant objects observable in the universe," the Hubble/ESA website said.
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