This week’s image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows an intriguing spiral galaxy called NGC 5486, captured through wisps of pink that show regions where new stars are being born.
Located 110 million light-years away in the famous constellation Ursa Major, this galaxy is a type called an irregular spiral galaxy because its arms are wandering and fuzzy.
If you compare the image of this galaxy to a perfect spiral galaxy such as NGC 2336, you will see that the irregular spiral galaxy has well-defined arms extending from its center that are symmetrical.
As the Hubble scientists pointed out in their description of this irregular spiral galaxy, it is also located near a very famous spiral galaxy called the Pinwheel Galaxy, according to Digitartlends.
The propeller is a type called a large-design spiral galaxy because it is highly organized, with distinctly prominent arms and a very regular structure.
Hubble spotted the Pinwheel in 2006 when it was the largest and most detailed image of a spiral galaxy ever taken by Hubble, captured by merging 51 individual images from Hubble and also adding some elements from ground-based telescopes.
However, the relatively chaotic structure of NGC 5486 does not mean that it is not of scientific interest. It was studied as part of a series of observations of supernovae, when a massive star runs out of fuel and collapses, producing a massive explosion of energy.
“This observation comes from a selection of Hubble images exploring debris left behind by type II supernovae,” Hubble scientists said. “As massive stars reach the end of their lives, they release huge amounts of gas and dust before ending their lives in supernova explosions.
NGC 5486 hosted a supernova in 2004, and astronomers have used the powerful view of Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys to probe its effects in hopes of learning more about these explosive events.”