By ESA/Hubble
January 8, 2023
Hubble Space Telescope image of galaxy LEDA 48062 in the constellation Perseus. Credit: ESA/Hubble & & NASA, R. Tully
This image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope features the galaxy LEDA 48062 in the constellation Perseus. LEDA 48062 is the faint, sporadic, amorphous galaxy on the ideal side of this image, and it is accompanied by a more greatly defined neighbor left wing, the large, disc-like lenticular galaxy UGC 8603. A smattering of more remote galaxies likewise litter the background, and a handful of foreground stars are likewise noticeable throughout the image.
The 4 spikes are due to the 4 thin vanes supporting Hubbles secondary mirror and are only visible for bright things like stars where a lot of light is focused on one area. Darker, more spread-out things like the galaxies LEDA 48062 and UGC 8603 do not have visible diffraction spikes.
LEDA 48062 is only around 30 million light-years from the Milky Way, and was therefore included in the observing project Every Known Nearby Galaxy. By getting to know our galactic next-door neighbors, astronomers can identify what types of stars reside in different galaxies and likewise map out the local structure of the Universe.