Galaxie spirale barree NGC 1300
Big, beautiful, barred spiral galaxy NGC 1300 lies some 70 million
light-years away on the banks of the
constellation
Eridanus.
This
Hubble Space Telescope composite view
of the gorgeous island universe is one of the
largest Hubble images ever made of a complete
galaxy.
NGC 1300 spans over 100,000 light-years and the
Hubble image
reveals striking details of the galaxy's dominant
central bar and majestic spiral arms.
In fact, on close
inspection
the nucleus of this classic barred spiral itself shows a remarkable region of
spiral structure
about 3,000 light-years across.
Like other
spiral
galaxies,
including our own Milky Way, NGC 1300 is thought to have a supermassive
central black hole.