Peering into the center of a spiral galaxy 11 million light-years away, the Hubble Space Telescope saw a bright, whitish patch, surrounded by a mixture of stars, gas and dust. This relatively small spiral galaxy is located in the southern constellation of Cetus (The Whale). This galaxy displays one particularly unusual and mysterious feature – it is not visible in this image, but can be seen clearly in wider views. The northern part of the disc hosts an apparent void. There are stars within this void, but they are quite different from those around it because they are significantly older, and as a result, much fainter and redder. This indicates that the star formation taking place across most of the galaxy’s disk has somehow been arrested in the void region, and has not taken place for around one billion years. CREDIT: NASA/ESA #nasa #space #esa #hubble #telescope #nasabeyond #galaxy #stars #lightyears #solarsystem #spiral
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