A Ten Billion-Year Stellar Dance Space Wallpaper

By Space.com Staff
published

A Ten Billion-Year Stellar Dance
Messier 68 is located about 33 000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra (The Female Water Snake). (Image credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA)

In this space wallpaper, Messier 68 is located about 33 000 light-years from Earth in the constellation Hydra (The Female Water Snake). French astronomer Charles Messier notched the object as the 68th entry in his famous catalogue in 1780. The image was taken by Hubble’s Wide Field Camera of the Advanced Camera for Surveys and combines visible and infrared light. It has a field of view of about 3.4 by 3.4 arcminutes.

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Space.com Staff
Space.com Staff
News and editorial team

Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.