Out of the Ordinary | Space Wallpaper

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Lenticular Galaxy NGC 4866 space wallpaper
In this space wallpaper—among a crowd of face- and edge-on spiral, elliptical, and irregular galaxies in the constellation of Virgo—lies NGC 4866, which is a lenticular galaxy situated about 80 million light-years from Earth. (Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA; Acknowledgement: Gilles Chapdelaine)

In this space wallpaper—among a crowd of face- and edge-on spiral, elliptical, and irregular galaxies in the constellation of Virgo—lies NGC 4866, which is a lenticular galaxy situated about 80 million light-years from Earth. Lenticular galaxies are somewhere between spirals and ellipticals in terms of shape and properties. From the picture, we see the bright central bulge of NGC 4866, which contains primarily old stars, but no spiral arms are visible. This image was released July 15, 2013.

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Space.com is the premier source of space exploration, innovation and astronomy news, chronicling (and celebrating) humanity's ongoing expansion across the final frontier. Originally founded in 1999, Space.com is, and always has been, the passion of writers and editors who are space fans and also trained journalists. Our current news team consists of Editor-in-Chief Tariq Malik; Editor Hanneke Weitering, Senior Space Writer Mike Wall; Senior Writer Meghan Bartels; Senior Writer Chelsea Gohd, Senior Writer Tereza Pultarova and Staff Writer Alexander Cox, focusing on e-commerce. Senior Producer Steve Spaleta oversees our space videos, with Diana Whitcroft as our Social Media Editor.