Its feathery appearance is probably a sign that the galaxy’s recent star formation “has been relatively calm.”
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NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has grasped a unique image from galaxy NGC 2275 showing the “delicate and feathery nature” of its spiral pattern.
NGC 2275 has been classified as a spiral galaxy of fluffy appearance (flocculant), which is approximately 67 million light years away from Earth, in the constellation Cancer.
Its feathery spiral arms indicate that the galaxy’s recent star formation has been “relatively quiet”. “There is virtually no star formation in the central part of the galaxy,” the arms of which are made up of gas clouds that have spread over time due to the galaxy’s rotation and are divided by large swaths of dust.
“Millions of bright, young blue stars shine in the complex feathery spiral arms, intertwined with dark lanes of dust,” reports NASA.
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