Credit: ILLUSTRATION: NASA, ESA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI), Frank Summers (STScI) SCIENCE: Chung-Pei Ma (UC Berkeley)

A photo of the huge elliptical galaxy M87 [left] is compared to its three-dimensional shape as gleaned from meticulous observations made with the Hubble and Keck telescopes [right]. Because the galaxy is too far away for astronomers to employ stereoscopic vision, they instead followed the motion of stars around the center of M87, like bees around a hive. This created a three-dimensional view of how stars are distributed within the galaxy.

Provider: Space Telescope Science Institute

Image Source: https://hubblesite.org/contents/news-releases/2023/news-2023-014

Curator: STScI, Baltimore, MD, USA

Image Use Policy: http://stsci.edu/copyright/