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Today\u2019s rather aquatic-themed NASA\/ESA Hubble Space Telescope\u00a0Picture of the Week\u00a0features the\u00a0spiral galaxy\u00a0Messier 77, also known as the Squid Galaxy, which sits 45 million light-years away in the constellation\u00a0Cetus\u00a0(The Whale).<\/p>\n
The designation Messier 77 comes from the galaxy\u2019s place in the famous catalogue compiled by the French astronomer Charles Messier. Another French astronomer, Pierre M\u00e9chain, discovered the galaxy in 1780. Both Messier and M\u00e9chain were\u00a0comet\u00a0hunters who catalogued nebulous objects that could be mistaken for comets.<\/p>\n
Messier, M\u00e9chain, and other astronomers of their time mistook the Squid Galaxy for either a spiral\u00a0nebula\u00a0or a star cluster. This mischaracterisation isn\u2019t surprising. More than a century would pass between the discovery of the Squid Galaxy and the realisation that the \u2018spiral nebulae\u2019 scattered across the sky were not part of our galaxy and were in fact separate galaxies millions of light-years away. The Squid Galaxy\u2019s appearance through a small telescope \u2014 an intensely bright centre surrounded by a fuzzy cloud \u2014 closely resembles one or more stars wreathed in a nebula.<\/p>\n
The name \u2018Squid Galaxy\u2019 only came about recently. This name comes from the extended, filamentary structure that curls around the galaxy\u2019s disc like the tentacles of a squid. The Squid Galaxy is a great example of how advances in technology and scientific understanding can completely change our perception of an astronomical object \u2014 and even what we call it!<\/p>\n
A Hubble image of the Squid Galaxy was\u00a0previously released in 2013. This new version incorporates recent observations made with different filters and updated image processing techniques.<\/p>\n
[Image Description:<\/i>\u00a0A close-up of a spiral galaxy, seen face-on. Its center glows brightly. From the sides of the galaxy\u2019s core emerge spiral arms which wind through the round disc of the galaxy, filled with shining pink spots where stars are forming and more dark-red dust. Some faint stars can be seen around the galaxy, as well as a particularly bright star in the lower left of the image.]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n