The European Space Agency (ESA) has unveiled a stunning image of a distant barred spiral galaxy captured using the Hubble Space Telescope.
The distant galaxy, designated as NGC 4639, can be found in the Virgo constellation, which is estimated to be more than 70 million light-years away from Earth. The ESA said the pictured barred spiral galaxy is part of the 1,500 galaxies that make up the cluster of Virgo.
A single light year is equivalent to 5.8 trillion miles and it is the unit of measurement used by scientists to determine astronomical distance that light can cover in one year.
In the image from the Hubble Space Telescope, a bar can be clearly seen running through the galaxy's bright, round center. Bars are often found in almost two thirds of spiral galaxies and are considered part of the natural phase of the evolution of these galaxies.
The European Space Agency said the spiral arms of the NGC 4639 galaxy are sprinkled with the luminescent regions of a star formation that appear to be active. Each one of these small jewel-looking celestial objects is in fact hundreds of light years across in size and contains thousands of newly developed stars.
The ESA also pointed out that the NGC 4639 galaxy has also been observed to have a massive black hole in its core, which is constantly consuming the gas surrounding the barred spiral galaxy.
This black hole presence is called an active galactic nucleus (AGN). It was observed by scientists through the help of characteristic features in the light spectrum from NGC 4639 and through X-ray generated close to where the massive black hole can be found as heated gas dives toward it.
Scientists typically consider most galaxies to contain a black hole at their core. In fact, the NGC 4639 galaxy is viewed as an example of a weak active galactic nucleus.
It demonstrates that an active galactic nucleus can exist over a wide range of celestial activity, from distant galaxies such as the NGC 4639 to quasars, where the original galaxy is almost virtually dominated by the AGN's emissions.
NASA launched the Hubble Space Telescope back in 1990. The American space agency celebrated the Hubble's 25th anniversary earlier this year.
