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NGC 2336 is the quintessential galaxy – big, beautiful and blue – and it is captured here by the Hubble Space Telescope. The barred spiral galaxy stretches an immense 200 000 light-years across and is located approximately 100 million light years away in the northern constellation of Camelopardalis (The Giraffe). Its spiral arms are glittered with young stars, visible in their bright blue light. In contrast, the redder central part of the galaxy is dominated by older stars.
NGC 2336 was discovered in 1876 by German astronomer Wilhelm Tempel, using a 28-centimeter telescope. This Hubble image is so much better than the view Tempel would have had – Hubble's main mirror is 2.4 meter across, nearly ten times the size of the telescope Tempel used. In 1987, NGC 2336 experienced a Type-Ia supernova, the only observed supernova in the galaxy since its discovery 111 years earlier.
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA, V. Antoniou
Acknowledgement: Judy Schmidt
Image enhancement: Jean-Baptiste Faure
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