The image from the Hubble Space Telescope shows a serpentine galaxy with spiral arms and is located in the constellation of Serpens, or The Snake. The galaxy is located 80 million light-years away.
A barred spiral galaxy like ours is called the galaxy NGC 5921. The strip of bright light across the center of the galaxy is a region of dust and gas where many stars are born. Around half of the known galaxies have bars, and researchers think that they develop as they get older and dust and gas are drawn in towards their center by gravity.
As part of the Hubble study, the image was taken to see how the black holes at the hearts of the galaxies relate to the stars within them. Hubble used its Wide Field Camera 3 instrument to take the image, which was combined with data from the ground-based Gemini Observatory.
Hubble scientists wrote that the two telescopes helped them better understand the relationship between the black holes and the galaxies. Hubble helped calibrate the observations. Astronomers were able to see a census of nearby black holes in a variety of galaxies.
In the past, Hubble and Gemini have collaborated with NASA to learn more about the atmosphere of Jupiter.
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