Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

NGC 1132 is located approximately 318 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus, the River. This image was taken with NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. NGC 1132 is seen among a number of smaller dwarf galaxies of similar color. In the background, there is a stunning tapestry of numerous galaxies that are much larger but much farther away. NGC 1132 has a strong X-ray glow from an abundant amount of hot gas that is normally only found in galaxy groups. In visible light, however, it appears as a single, isolated, large elliptical galaxy. Elliptical galaxies are smooth and featureless. Containing hundreds of millions to trillions of stars, they range from nearly spherical to very elongated shapes. Their overall yellowish color comes from the aging stars. Because ellipticals do not contain much cool gas, they no longer can make new stars.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2008/news-2008-07

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://hubblesite.org/copyright/