NASA's Hubble space telescope captures picture of massive galaxy UGC 12591 located 400 million light-years away from Earth

NASA’s Hubble space telescope has capture a stunning picture revealing an incredibly massive galaxy named UGC 12591 which is located 400 million light-years away from our planet Earth. NASA says the galaxy is located somewhere between a lenticular and a spiral. 

The UGC 12591 is situated in the westernmost region of the Pisces Perseus Supercluster, a long thread of galaxy clusters that spreads to hundreds of light years. It is one of the largest known structures in the cosmos.

NASA said UGC 12591 is itself also extraordinary – it is incredibly massive.

The galaxy and its halo together stand at several hundred billion times the mass of the Sun and four times the mass of the Milky Way.Whirling round extremely quickly, it rotates at the speeds of up to 1.8 million kilometres per hour.

Hubble observations are helping NASA scientists in understanding the mass of UGC 12591. It also helps to determine whether the galaxy simply formed and grew slowly over time, or whether it might have grown unusually massive by colliding and merging with another large galaxy at some point in its past. 

Slow & steady or suddenly huge? Astronomers use @NASA_Hubble data to learn how this incredibly massive galaxy formed https://t.co/ODagMdW57k pic.twitter.com/WoGiuY2B6b

— NASA (@NASA) March 3, 2017