NASA’s Hubble Telescope has snapped a shot of a galaxy that’s blocked by space muck and gases.
Fortunately, the Hubble Telescope has infrared sight and can make out shapes shrouded by space debris.
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Caldwell 5, a distant galaxy, has been dubbed the “Hidden Galaxy” by researchers.
Nasa says the Hidden Galaxy is a large, bright spiral galaxy but its hard to spot because of the cosmic smog that clouds our view of it.
“This sparkling, face-on view of the center of the galaxy displays intertwined tendrils of dust in spectacular arms that wrap around a brilliant core of hot gas and stars,” Nasa wrote.
“Were it not obscured by so much interstellar matter, the Hidden Galaxy would be one of the brightest galaxies in our sky.”
The Hidden Galaxy has a special core at the center of the galaxy loaded with charged particles.
“Such regions are energetic birthplaces of stars where thousands of stars can form over a couple million years,” Nasa said.
The Hidden Galaxy is 11million lightyears from Earth but when it comes to interstellar space and cosmic timelines, that’s close.
It’s about half the size of our own Milky Way galaxy.
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In 1989, then-President George HW Bush celebrated past Nasa success with a speech in Washington DC.
“The time has come to look beyond brief encounters. We must commit ourselves anew to a sustained program of manned exploration of the solar system and, yes, the permanent settlement of space,” he said.
The Hubble Telescope launched the next year in 1990.
In the years since, Hubble has provided Nasa researchers with scores of observations and its observations of the Hidden Galaxy add to the telescope’s exceptional run.
The James Webb Telescope, which launched last year, will eventually replace Hubble as the top telescope in space.
The Hubble is a mere 340 miles from Earth, whereas the James Webb just parked itself 1,000,000 miles from our planet.
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