Hubble Telescope spots pair of galaxies near Big Dipper
One smudge-like galaxy was captured only around 30 million light-years away from the Milky Way
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A recent Hubble Space Telescope image highlights galaxies near the Big Dipper.
The scene features the galaxy LEDA 48062, located in the constellation Canes Venatici and shown on the right side of the image.
On the left, the disc-like lenticular galaxy UGC 8603 is more defined.
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The European Space Agency notes that foreground stars and other distant galaxies are peppered throughout the shot.
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The agency said that smudge-like LEDA 48062 is only around 30 million light-years from the Milky Way.
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"By getting to know our galactic neighbors, astronomers can determine what types of stars reside in various galaxies and also map out the local structure of the universe," it said.
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Notably, darker and more spread-out objects like these galaxies do not possess visible diffraction spikes.
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Diffraction spikes – seen as four sharp points – often surround stars in Hubble images. They are created as starlight spreads around the support structures inside reflecting telescopes like Hubble.
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The diffraction spikes seen in images from the James Webb Space Telescope have eight diffraction spikes.