Hubble Zooms In on Dusty Spiral Galaxy

The amazing galaxy seen above, called NGC 4183, is the latest to be imaged by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. The cosmic structure is located relatively close by, at a distance of just 55 million light-years.

It lies in the Ursa Major Group, which is itself located in the northern constellation of Canes Venatici. The spiral galaxy is around 80,000 light-years wide, which means that it's slightly smaller than the Milky Way.

NGC 4183 was first discovered on January 14, 1778, by famous British astronomer William Herschel, after whom the European Space Agency's (ESA) flagship telescope is named.

The image above was pieced together from both visible and infrared data, collected by the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) instrument. The bluish hue is given by numerous new stars, which are formed inside a large number of stellar nurseries.