Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1300 in Eridanus | Hubble Space Telescope

Barred Spiral Galaxy NGC 1300 in Eridanus | Hubble Space Telescope

The NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope captured a display of starlight, glowing gas, and silhouetted dark clouds of interstellar dust in this image of the barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300. It is considered to be prototypical of barred spiral galaxies. Barred spirals differ from normal spiral galaxies in that the arms of the galaxy do not spiral all the way into the center, but are connected to the two ends of a straight bar of stars containing the nucleus at its center.

Distance from Earth: 60 million light years

NGC 1300 is about 130,000 light-years across. It is a member of the Eridanus Cluster, a cluster of 200 galaxies, in a subgroup of 2-4 galaxies in the cluster known as the NGC 1300 Group. It was discovered by John Herschel in 1835.

Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Release Date: Jan. 11, 2005

#NASA #ESA #Astronomy #Space #Science #Galaxies #NGC1300 #SpiralGalaxies #BarredSpiralGalaxies #EridanusConstellation #Cosmos #Universe #HubbleSpaceTelescope #HST #Europe #GSFC #STScI #UnitedStates #STEM #Education