Hubble Photographs a Big Ol' Galaxy

A new Hubble image highlights striking swirling dust lanes and glittering globular clusters in oddball galaxy NGC 7049. (Image credit: NASA, ESA and W. Harris (McMaster University, Ontario, Canada))

An unusual large galaxy with a shape bordering betweenspiral and elliptical has been spotted by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope.

NGC7049 sits in the southern constellation Indus, and is the brightest of a clusterof galaxies, a so-called Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG). Typical BCGs aresome of the oldest and most massive galaxies, which provide excellent opportunitiesfor astronomers to study the elusive globular clusters lurking within.

The halo, a ghostly region of diffuse light surroundingthe galaxy, is composed of myriads of individual stars and provides a luminousbackground to the swirling ring of dust lanes surrounding NGC 7049's core.

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