A spiral galaxy shines bright in the southern Constellation of Centaurus, but is just one of many in its patch of sky.

Known to astronomers as ESO 269-G57, this galaxy sports appears to have a round central hub of several tightly-wound spiral arms while two outer arms form a more distant rim.

The galaxy sits about 155 million light-years from Earth towards the constellation Centaurus – or the Centaur – and spans about four arc minutes of sky, which corresponds to a diameter of about 200,000 light-years. Its hallmark symmetrical shape is indicative of many galaxies in a well-known cluster of objects seen when looking in their general direction from Earth.

Astronomers discovered this galaxy during the European Southern Observatory (ESO)/Uppsala Survey of the Southern Sky in the 1970s, which caught and catalogued more than 15,000 southern galaxies using the optical eye of ESO’s Schmidt telescope.

This image was taken by ESO’s Very Large Telescope at the Paranal Observatory high up in Atacama, Chile.

Also visible in bright blues and other colors are many objects – mostly star-forming regions – as well as many other, more distant galaxies.

-- SPACE.com Staff

Credit: ESO/VLT.