A newly published Hubble Space Telescope image offers a sideways view of NGC 1827, a spiral galaxy roughly 37 million light-years away in the constellation Columba.
Details in the image
NASA’s 16 October 2026 feature describes brown dust lanes running through the galaxy and blue regions along its disk where new stars are likely forming. A bright star near the galaxy’s central bulge is actually in the foreground, between Earth and the distant galaxy.
The image was captured with Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys. The foreground star’s cross-shaped spikes arise from the telescope’s optical structure.
More than a striking photograph
NASA connects the observation to a broader program studying low-mass galaxies around galaxies similar to the Milky Way. The research is intended to improve comparisons between observations and models of the universe.
For anyone exploring the image, a useful first step is to separate foreground stars, the main galaxy and more distant background objects. The accompanying NASA explanation identifies which details belong to each layer.
Source: NASA Hubble feature, 16 October 2026.
