Skip to main content

Hubble captures a snake-like spiral galaxy in the constellation of Serpens

The image from the Hubble Space Telescope shared this week shows a “serpentine” galaxy with winding, snake-like spiral arms, and is appropriately enough located in the constellation of Serpens, or The Snake. Technically known as NGC 5921, the galaxy is located 80 million light-years away.

The lazily winding spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 5921 snake across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope.
The lazily winding spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 5921 snake across this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This galaxy lies approximately 80 million light-years from Earth, and much like our own galaxy, the Milky Way, contains a prominent bar – a central linear band of stars. Roughly half of all spiral galaxies may contain bars. These bars affect their parent galaxies by fueling star formation and influencing the motion of stars and interstellar gas. ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Walsh; Acknowledgment: R. Colombari

The galaxy NGC 5921 is a type called a barred spiral galaxy, like our Milky Way. The bar refers to the strip of bright light across the center of the galaxy, which is a region of dust and gas where many stars are born — hence why it glows brightly. Around half of known galaxies have bars, and researchers think that they develop as galaxies get older and dust and gas are drawn in toward their center by gravity.

Related Videos

The image was taken as part of a Hubble study into how the supermassive black holes at the hearts of galaxies relate to the stars within them. Hubble used its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument to take the image, which was combined with data from the ground-based Gemini Observatory.

“The two telescopes helped astronomers better understand the relationship between galaxies like NGC 5921 and the supermassive black holes they contain,” Hubble scientists write. “Hubble’s contribution determined the masses of stars in the galaxies. Hubble also took measurements that helped calibrate the observations from Gemini. Together, Hubble and Gemini provided astronomers with a census of nearby supermassive black holes in a diverse variety of galaxies.”

Hubble and Gemini have teamed up before in the past, such as when observations from both telescopes were combined with data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft to learn more about the complex atmosphere of Jupiter.

Editors' Recommendations

An enormous galaxy cluster warps spacetime in this Hubble image
A massive galaxy cluster in the constellation Cetus dominates the centre of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. This image is populated with a serene collection of elliptical and spiral galaxies, but galaxies surrounding the central cluster — which is named SPT-CL J0019-2026 — appear stretched into bright arcs, as if distorted by a gargantuan magnifying glass. This cosmic contortion is called gravitational lensing, and it occurs when a massive object like a galaxy cluster has a sufficiently powerful gravitational field to distort and magnify the light from background objects.

Every week, scientists using the Hubble Space Telescope share an image from this beloved piece of space technology, and this week's image shows a vital astronomical phenomenon in action. While space telescopes can observe very far-off objects if they are bright enough, there is still a lot of the universe that is too far away to observe -- which is why researchers make use of a natural occurrence called gravitational lensing.

Gravitational lensing happens when an object like a galaxy or galaxy cluster has so much mass that it noticeably warps spacetime. Everything with mass bends spacetime somewhat, but usually this effect is so small as to be effectively invisible. But when the object is something with as much mass as a large galaxy or even a collection of galaxies, then this warping can be significant enough for us to observe it.

Read more
Three galaxies are in the process of merging in this Hubble image
A spectacular trio of merging galaxies in the constellation Boötes takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. These three galaxies are set on a collision course and will eventually merge into a single larger galaxy, distorting one another’s spiral structure through mutual gravitational interaction in the process. An unrelated foreground galaxy appears to float serenely near this scene, and the smudged shapes of much more distant galaxies are visible in the background.

This week's image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a dramatic collision of three different galaxies. The trio, located in the Boötes constellation, are in the process of merging and will eventually form one single large galaxy.

A spectacular trio of merging galaxies in the constellation Boötes takes center stage in this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. These three galaxies are set on a collision course and will eventually merge into a single larger galaxy, distorting one another’s spiral structure through mutual gravitational interaction in the process. An unrelated foreground galaxy appears to float serenely near this scene, and the smudged shapes of much more distant galaxies are visible in the background. ESA/Hubble & NASA, M. Sun

Read more
James Webb captures swirls of dust and gas in nearby galaxies
Scientists are getting their first look with the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope’s powerful resolution at how the formation of young stars influences the evolution of nearby galaxies. The spiral arms of NGC 7496, one of a total of 19 galaxies targeted for study by the Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby Galaxies (PHANGS) collaboration, are filled with cavernous bubbles and shells overlapping one another in this image from Webb’s Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI). These filaments and hollow cavities are evidence of young stars releasing energy and, in some cases, blowing out the gas and dust of the interstellar medium they plough into.

The James Webb Space Telescope is helping astronomers to peer into nearby galaxies and see the elaborate structures of dust and gas which are created by and necessary for star formation.

The Physics at High Angular resolution in Nearby Galaxies, or PHANGS project, involves using data from different telescopes to look at galaxies that are close to us. By using telescopes such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, researchers can collect data in different wavelengths such as the visible light and radio wavelengths.

Read more