For more than three decades, the tireless Hubble Space Telescope has provided stunning views into the myriad mysteries of the universe, helping astronomers, physicists and scientists of all races understand more about galaxies, exoplanets, moons and stars than ever before.
Take a look at this classic galactic scene he originally captured Hubble telescope 2012 (NASA recently released it this month) to point out how optical perspective tricks can change our conclusions about what seems to be true.
Focus on the crowded cloud stars at the center of this stunning image. What you see is the galaxy ESO 318-13 in the southern constellation Antlia (Pump). There are about 30 million light years from Earth and known for miles as the Glitter Galaxy, the tiny ESO 318-13 is an irregular oval-shaped dwarf galaxy that is approximately 1% of its mass Milky Way.
“ESO 318-13 is sandwiched between a huge collection of bright celestial objects,” NASA officials wrote in description of the June 15 painting (opens in new tab). “Several stars near and far dazzle compared to the neat dust inside the galaxy.”
Here, ESO 318-13 is seen positioned between the impressive scattering of ultra-bright celestial objects. Many neighboring stars that shine both near and far catch the eye compared to the close-knit Glitter Galaxy family, especially one specimen of great power right in the middle.
“The one that stands out is located near the center of the image and looks like an extremely bright star located inside the galaxy. This is, however, a trick of perspective,” NASA wrote. “The star is in the Milky Way, our own galaxy, and it shines so brightly because it’s much closer to us than ESO 318-13.”
These colorful luminous disks that stretch the rest of the picture frame are galaxies that rotate even further. Aiming at the upper right corner, one can clearly see a bright elliptical galaxy that is far more massive than ESO 318-13, but at an even greater distance.
And in the case of overlapping galaxies, we can see a distant spiral galaxy trying to be spotted through the expanse of ESO 318-13 with almost no dust at the far right edge of this broad photo of false colors.
For more amazing pictures of the stars, check out our list The best books on space and astronomy.
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