NASA / ESA’s Hubble Space Telescope captures an eye-opening image of starburst-like spiral galaxy NGC 5248, located roughly 42 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Boötes. This galaxy is known as a ‘grand design’ spiral due to its prominent spiral arms that reach from near the core out through the disc.
NGC 5248 also features a faint bar structure in the center, between the inner ends of the spiral arms, which can’t be seen too clearly in this visible-light portrait from Hubble. Features like the faint bar, which break the rotational symmetry of a galaxy, have a big influence on how matter moves through it, and eventually, its evolution through time.
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A close-in, face-on view of a spiral galaxy. It has two large arms which curve outwards from the round, bright central region to nearly the corners of the image. They are lined by bright pink, glowing points where stars are forming, and channels of dark reddish dust that blocks light,” said the ESA.
