NASA continues to captivate us with stunning images of stars and galaxies. Recently, the space agency shared a striking picture taken by the Hubble Space Telescope featuring a solitary star and a galaxy located in the constellation Lacerta (The Lizard).
Elaborating on this celestial marvel, NASA explained, “The star is a million times closer to us than the galaxy, which lies more than 45 million light-years away. This relative closeness is the only way a star can outshine an entire galaxy containing billions of stars.”
They further added, “This star is what astronomers call a ‘foreground star,’ and it’s a bit of a nuisance. Its light can contaminate fainter light from more distant objects that astronomers want to study.”
Talking more about the foreground stars, NASA shared, “In a technique called microlensing, the gravitational pull of a foreground star can be used to amplify the light of a background star that is momentarily aligned with it. The exact timing and amount of light amplification can reveal clues to the nature of the foreground star and its accompanying planets.”
Have a look at the post here:
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Since it was posted a few hours ago, this post has garnered over three hundred thousand likes and numerous comments.
People’s reactions
An individual commented, “This star that makes up space is very beautiful!”
“how come the diffraction spikes look different in this image from the Hubble telescope? Were the exposures taken at different angles? Is that possible?” asked Arien, an Instagram user.
A third said, “The images are becoming more and more effective, and the more our excitement increases approach the past.”
Instagram user Jamal Davis posted, “Always impressed by how NASA makes complex astronomy concepts so relatable and interesting.”
