Image Tour: Galaxy NGC 1300

Produced by the Space Telescope Science Institute’s Office of Public Outreach in collaboration with NASA’s Universe of Learning partners: Caltech/IPAC, Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Sonoma State University

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 Text, Image Tour, N G C 1300. 

Fast Facts. Location, Constellation Eridanus. Distance from Earth, 69 million light-years. Size, 70,000 light-years, across the bar. Telescope, Hubble Space Telescope. 

N C G 1300 is a barred spiral galaxy. 

In a barred spiral, the galaxy's arms connect to the ends of a straight bar of stars that contain the galaxy's nucleus. 

Recent evidence suggests that our Milky Way Galaxy may be a barred spiral. 

A bar appears at the bottom with a list of stops, and a box highlights the first stop on the list. Text, Tour Stops, Foreground Stars. 

These stars are in our Milky Way Galaxy, thousands of times closer than N G C 1300. They have the distinctive cross shape caused by bright light traveling through the Hubble Space Telescope's optical system. 

The box on the tour bar highlights the next stop. Text, Background Galaxies. 

These apparently tiny objects are actually other galaxies of comparable size to N G C 1300, but are much farther away. 

The galaxies are circled. 

The box on the tour bar highlights the next stop. Text, Spiral Arms. 

The galaxy's sweeping spiral arms contain the hottest, newest stars. 

A dotted outline around the arms. 

The box on the tour bar highlights the next stop. Text, Dust Lanes. 

Lanes of dust block the background starlight. 

The lanes of dust are highlighted. 

The box on the tour bar highlights the next stop. Text, Star Clusters. 

These bright blue specs are clusters of thousands of young stars. 

Blue clusters indicate regions of star birth. 

Hydrogen gas in these clusters glows with a reddish hue. 

Dotted lines outline the clusters. 

The box on the tour bar highlights the next stop. Text, Bar of Stars. 

The bar of stars contains old, cool stars. These stars give off a redder glow than the galaxy's arms. 

The box on the tour bar highlights the next stop. Text, Star Clusters. 

N G C 1300 has a spiral within a spiral. The spiral structure in the nucleus is seen only in galaxies with large bars. 

An orange dotted line outlines the spiral shape. 

The tour bar fades and reappears with the names of all the stops. Text, Foreground Stars, Background Galaxies, Spiral Arms, Dust Lanes, Star Clusters, Bar of Stars, Central Spiral. 

The photo of the galaxy fades to black.