Sunny Priyan
The barred spiral galaxy UGC 678 takes center stage in this image from the Hubble Space Telescope.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Ebeling
The spectacular galaxy lies around 260 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Pisces and is almost face on, allowing its lazily winding spiral arms to stretch across this image.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Ebeling
In the foreground, a smaller edge-on galaxy seems to bisect the upper portion of UGC 678.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Ebeling
Barred spiral galaxies have a bar-shaped structure of stars that extends from opposite sides of the galaxy’s central bulge.
Credit: Pixabay
Bars form in spiral galaxies when the orbits of stars near the galaxy’s heart become unstable and stretched out. As their orbits lengthen, they create a bar.
Credit: Pixabay
UGC 678’s faint bar, visible as a diagonal stream of stars from 7 to 1 o’clock across the galaxy’s core, quietly reveals its structure.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, H. Ebeling