NASAさんのインスタグラム写真 - (NASAInstagram)「A spiral in profile! 🌀⁣ ⁣ @nasahubble sees galaxies of all shapes, sizes, luminosities and orientations in the cosmos. Sometimes, the telescope gazes at a galaxy oriented sideways — as shown here. This galaxy, called NGC 3717, is about 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra (the Sea Serpent). ⁣ ⁣ Seeing a spiral almost in profile, as Hubble has here, can provide a vivid sense of its three-dimensional shape. Through most of their expanse, spiral galaxies are shaped like a thin pancake. At their cores, though, they have bright, spherical, star-filled bulges that extend above and below this disk, giving these galaxies a shape somewhat like that of a flying saucer when they are seen edge-on.⁣ ⁣ NGC 3717 is not captured perfectly edge-on in this image; the nearer part of the galaxy is tilted ever so slightly down, and the far side tilted up. This angle affords a view across the disk and the central bulge (of which only one side is visible).⁣ ⁣ #galaxy #cosmos #universe #hubble #outerspace⁣ ⁣ Text credit: ESA (European Space Agency)⁣ Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, D. Rosario」10月15日 6時01分