NASA has released an image of the spiral arms of the galaxy NGC 3318 captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The galaxy lies in the constellation named Vela which is about 115 million light years away from Earth.
Vela is part of a larger constellation known as Argo Navis. It gets its name from the fabled ship Argo from the Greek mythology. The Argo Navis constellation is split into three parts — Carina, Puppis, and Vela.
In the image, you can see the outer edges of the galaxy resembling a ship’s sails.
Raise your cosmic sails ⛵
This #HubbleFriday image shows the galaxy NGC 3318, which is part of the constellation Vela…which was originally part of a much larger constellation known as Argo Navis after the ship Argo from Greek mythology!
Read more: https://t.co/XcXphx94J9 pic.twitter.com/R1sR0xJsSg
— Hubble (@NASAHubble) January 21, 2022
Last week, the Hubble helped spot a black hole in the Henize 2-10 galaxy which was helping create stars rather than swallowing them. The dwarf galaxy lies 30 million light years away.
On January 1, 2022, the Hubble Space Telescope achieved another milestone – it officially passed the one-billion-second mark.
Deployed on April 25, 1990, Hubble has helped make groundbreaking scientific discoveries and also captured iconic images of space. “We can only imagine what discoveries the next one-billion seconds will bring as new telescopes like the recently launched James Webb Space Telescope and the future Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope build upon Hubble’s discoveries and work together with Hubble to expand our understanding of the universe,” NASA said in a release.
