Science and Exploration

Hubble Spies Sparkling Galaxy PGC 29388

By Keith Cowing
Press Release
July 19, 2020
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Hubble Spies Sparkling Galaxy PGC 29388
PGC 29388
STSCI

As beautiful as the surrounding space may be, the sparkling galaxy in the foreground of this image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope undeniably steals the show.
This spotlight-hogging galaxy, seen set against a backdrop of more distant galaxies of all shapes and sizes, is known as PGC 29388. Although it dominates in this image, this galaxy is a small player on the cosmic stage and is known as a dwarf elliptical galaxy.

As the “dwarf” moniker suggests, the galaxy is on the smaller side, and boasts a “mere” 100 million to a few billion stars — a very small number indeed when compared to the Milky Way’s population of around 250 billion to 400 billion stellar residents.

Text credit: ESA (European Space Agency)
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, T. Armandroff

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SpaceRef co-founder, Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA, Away Teams, Journalist, Space & Astrobiology, Lapsed climber.