Nasa captures stunning image of spiral galaxy with incredible ancient secret

NO, this is not something from a sci-fi movie. Nasa has snapped a mesmerising shot of a spiral galaxy located some 60million light-years away. It was captured by high-tech equipment onboard the Hubble Space Telescope which peeks far into space from low Earth orbit. The galaxy – official name NGC 4571 – may look impressive […]

NO, this is not something from a sci-fi movie.

Nasa has snapped a mesmerising shot of a spiral galaxy located some 60million light-years away.

ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team

Spiral galaxy spotted[/caption]

It was captured by high-tech equipment onboard the Hubble Space Telescope which peeks far into space from low Earth orbit.

The galaxy – official name NGC 4571 – may look impressive but it’s far from the largest thing astronomers have seen in space.

It is actually one of more than a thousand galaxies that swirl in a cluster called Virgo.

And the constellation the galaxy was found in has an interesting story of its own.

It’s part of the Coma Berenices constellation, which refers to Queen Berenice II of Egypt, and translates to ‘Bernice’s Hair’.

Queen Berenice II ruled over ancient Egypt some 2,200 years ago.

Hubble has been glancing out into the far reaches of the universe since 1990 and remains crucial to this day.

But it wasn’t just the great work of Hubble.

Nasa described the finding as the result of a “treasure trove of combined observations”.

A massive telescope with 66 high-precision antennas in Chile, known as ALMA, also played a big part.

The power couple provide experts with “vital” data to study star formation.

They also lay the groundwork for future exciting science discoveries.

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