NASA’s Hubble Telescope Snaps Grand Design Spiral Galaxy NGC 5364

Hubble Space Telescope, which belongs to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA), captured an image of the central part of a grand design spiral galaxy called NGC 5364. It is to be noted that the image of NGC 5364 was captured by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced Camera for Surveys.

In a statement, Hubble said, "Unmistakably a spiral, NGC 5364 is also something known as a grand design spiral galaxy — a descriptive name deserved by only one-tenth of spirals. While all spirals have a structure that is broadly similar, there is quite a bit of variation among individual galaxies; some have patchy, oddly shaped arms, some have bars of stars cutting through their core, some are colossal and radiant, and others are dim and diminutive."

Hubble further said, "Grand designs like NGC 5364 are in many ways the archetype of a spiral galaxy. They are characterized by their prominent, well-defined arms, which circle outward from a clear core."

"Despite being classified in this way, NGC 5364 is far from perfect. Its arms are asymmetrical compared to other grand design spirals — this is thought to be due to interactions with a nearby neighbor. This neighbor and NGC 5364 are tugging on one another, warping and moving their stars and gas around and causing this misshapen appearance," it added.

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It is worth mentioning here that the spiral galaxy NGC 5364 was the first object to be observed with the VIMOS instrument.

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