NASA shares picture of a barred spiral galaxy

NASA on January 15 shared a spellbinding photograph of the cosmos barred spiral galaxy known for its central bar-shaped structure which is composed of a myriad of stars. NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope shared this image on their official Instagram account.

Taking to its official Instagram handle, the space agency wrote, “At a distance of 67 million light-years away, NGC 613 is a stunning example of a barred spiral galaxy. It’s easy to distinguish the galaxy as such because of its well-defined central bar and long arms, which spiral loosely around the nucleus.” According to NASA, NGC 613 galaxy was first discovered in 1798 by German-English astronomer William Herschel. The galaxy was observed by amateur astronomer Victor Buso while he was testing a new camera on a telescope in 2016. A curious spot of light caught his eye which was originating out of a supernova in the southern constellation of Sculptor 67 million light-years away with two stellar nuclei that were emitted apart by a stream of dust. Later observed by NASA and ESA Hubble Space Telescope, NGC 613 was dubbed as barred galaxy by the astronomers owing to its well-defined central bar and long arms that radiated out of the nucleus.