Spiral Galaxy NGC 5643 in Lupus | Hubble

Spiral Galaxy NGC 5643 in Lupus | Hubble

This image by the NASA/European Space Agency Hubble Space Telescope features the spiral galaxy NGC 5643 in the constellation of Lupus (The Wolf). It required thirty exposures for a total of 9 hours observation time to produce an image of such high detail and beauty.

NGC 5643 is about 60 million light-years away from Earth. It has been the host of a recent supernova event (not visible in this latest image). This supernova (2017cbv) involves a white dwarf star stealing so much mass from a companion star that it becomes unstable and explodes. The explosion releases significant amounts of energy and lights up that part of the galaxy.

The observation was proposed by Adam Riess. He was awarded a Nobel Laureate in physics 2011 for his contributions to the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe, alongside Saul Perlmutter and Brian Schmidt.

Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al. 

Acknowledgement: Mahdi Zamani

Release Date: Sept. 28, 2020

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