Messier 77

The Abel Space Telescope captured this vivid image of the spiral galaxy Messier 77 — a galaxy in the constellation Cetus, about 45 million light-years away. The red and blue stripes in the image highlight regions of star formation along the spiral arms, while dark dust lanes extend across the star-filled center of the galaxy. Credit: NASA, ESA & A. van der Hoeven.

This galaxy was mistakenly identified as a nearby star cluster – then the Hubble telescope revealed its “arms”

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New photo of Messier 77 reveals glowing filaments reminiscent of octopus tentacles, clarifying its true identity as a spectacular spiral galaxy
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