{"id":417427,"date":"2026-04-30T01:28:31","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:28:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?guid=0008112a293ffe4218a97706f7871479"},"modified":"2026-04-30T01:28:31","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T15:28:31","slug":"a-gently-glowing-galaxy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=417427","title":{"rendered":"A Gently Glowing Galaxy"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\">\n<div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\">\n<div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\">\n<figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-none \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55205768700-7d3f580146-o.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1333\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55205768700-7d3f580146-o.jpg?w=2048\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"A face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy IC 486, showing a bright, elongated central bar and softly curving, ring-like spiral arms with subtle blue star-forming regions and dark dust lanes, set against a black background dotted with distant galaxies and a few foreground stars.\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" loading=\"eager\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55205768700-7d3f580146-o.jpg 2749w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55205768700-7d3f580146-o.jpg?resize=300,195 300w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55205768700-7d3f580146-o.jpg?resize=768,500 768w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55205768700-7d3f580146-o.jpg?resize=1024,666 1024w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55205768700-7d3f580146-o.jpg?resize=1536,1000 1536w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55205768700-7d3f580146-o.jpg?resize=2048,1333 2048w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55205768700-7d3f580146-o.jpg?resize=400,260 400w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55205768700-7d3f580146-o.jpg?resize=600,390 600w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55205768700-7d3f580146-o.jpg?resize=900,586 900w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55205768700-7d3f580146-o.jpg?resize=1200,781 1200w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/55205768700-7d3f580146-o.jpg?resize=2000,1302 2000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/a><\/figure><figcaption class=\"hds-caption padding-y-2\">\n<div class=\"hds-credits\">ESA\/Hubble &amp; NASA, M. J. Koss, A. J. Barth<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>A luminous swirl set against the deep black of space, the barred spiral galaxy IC 486 glows with a soft, ethereal light in this NASA&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/hubble\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Hubble Space Telescope<\/a>&nbsp;image from April 13, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>IC 486 lies right on the edge of the constellation Gemini (the Twins), around 380 million light-years from Earth. Classified as a barred spiral galaxy, it features a bright central bar-shaped structure from which its spiral arms unfurl, wrapping around the core in a smooth, almost ring-like pattern.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/missions\/hubble\/hubble-spies-an-active-spiral\/\" rel=\"noopener\">Read more about IC 486 and how scientists are studying galaxies using observations like this.<\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Image credit: ESA\/Hubble &amp; NASA, M. J. Koss, A. J. Barth<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A luminous swirl set against the deep black of space, the barred spiral galaxy IC 486 glows with a soft, ethereal light in this NASA\u00a0Hubble Space Telescope\u00a0image from April 13, 2026. IC 486 lies right on the edge of the constellation Gemini (the Twins), around 380 million light-years from Earth. Classified as a barred spiral [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[15615],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-417427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hubble-space-telescope"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=417427"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417427\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417428,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417427\/revisions\/417428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=417427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=417427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=417427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}