Out of the Ordinary | Space Wallpaper

Wallpapers
By published
Lenticular Galaxy NGC 4866 space wallpaper
In this space wallpaper—among a crowd of face- and edge-on spiral, elliptical, and irregular galaxies in the constellation of Virgo—lies NGC 4866, which is a lenticular galaxy situated about 80 million light-years from Earth. (Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement: Gilles Chapdelaine)

In this space wallpaper—among a crowd of face- and edge-on spiral, elliptical, and irregular galaxies in the constellation of Virgo—lies NGC 4866, which is a lenticular galaxy situated about 80 million light-years from Earth. Lenticular galaxies are somewhere between spirals and ellipticals in terms of shape and properties. From the picture, we see the bright central bulge of NGC 4866, which contains primarily old stars, but no spiral arms are visible. This image was released July 15, 2013.

Wallpapers

Standard
800x600
1024x768
1280x1024
1600x1200
Wide
1280x800
1440x900
1680x1050
1920x1200

Join our Space Forums to keep talking space on the latest missions, night sky and more! And if you have a news tip, correction or comment, let us know at: community@space.com.

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. 

More about science astronomy

Astronomers gaze into 'dark nebula' 60 times the size of the solar system (video)

James Webb Space Telescope finds a wild black hole growth spurt in galaxies at 'cosmic noon'

Amazon launches 27 satellites to begin building huge 'Project Kuiper' internet constellation (video)
See more latest