By ESA/Hubble
March 20, 2022
Hubble Space Telescopes Wide Field Camera 3 was used to capture this cosmic portrait that features a sensational view of the spiral nebula NGC 4571, which lies around 60 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices. Credit: ESA/Hubble & & NASA, J. Lee and the PHANGS-HST Team
This cosmic portrait– recorded with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescopes Wide Field Camera 3– shows a sensational view of the spiral nebula NGC 4571, which lies approximately 60 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Coma Berenices. This constellation– whose name equates as Bernices Hair– was named after an Egyptian queen who lived more than 2200 years earlier.
As magnificent as spiral galaxies like NGC 4571 are, they are far from the biggest structures understood to astronomers. NGC 4571 is part of the Virgo cluster, which contains more than a thousand galaxies.
Hubbles razor-sharp observations at ultraviolet wavelengths, on the other hand, permits astronomers to identify the place of hot, luminous, recently formed stars. Together, the ALMA and Hubble observations provide an essential repository of data to astronomers studying star development, as well as laying the foundation for future science with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope.