Hubble Spots Chaotic Secret in Galaxy

美国国家航空航天局（NASA），NASA（美国国家航空航天局），发布最新太空探索、科学发现与航空研究的新闻、图片与视频。关注

A spiral galaxy viewed at an angle, with a bright central bulge and winding spiral arms. The arms form a ring around the galaxy, without appearing to reach its center. Prominent red-brown dust lanes weave through the arms, which are also dotted with bright blue and reddish regions of star formation. The galaxy is set against a dark background scattered with stars and faint distant galaxies.

A chaotic secret hides within this seemingly serene image of spiral galaxy NGC 4698 taken by NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope and released on Sept. 18, 2026. As a spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way galaxy, NGC 4698 has spiral arms that curl around within a thin disk of stars, gas, and dust. These arms are marked by opaque clumps of brown dust and dotted with small collections of bright blue stars.

Unlike many other spiral galaxies, NGC 4698’s delicate spiral arms are only prominent in the outer reaches of the disk; spiral arms often wind down to the very center of a galaxy, but NGC 4698’s spiral arms appear to shy away from its glowing center. The arms instead hover in a ring-like structure around the perimeter of the galaxy.

Text credit: ESA/Hubble

Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Thilker, the MAUVE-HST Team

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