Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Our own Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a modest central bar. The prominently barred spiral galaxy NGC 1073 was captured in spectacular detail in this recently released image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. The image shows dark filamentary dust lanes, young clusters of bright blue stars, red emission nebulas of glowing hydrogen gas, a long bright bar of stars across the center, and a bright active nucleus that likely houses a supermassive black hole. NGC 1073 is about 55,000,000 light years away and is about 80,000 light years across. It can be seen with a moderately-sized telescope looking toward the constellation of Cetus (the Sea Monster).

Image Credit: NASA