Just released: NASA's Hubble snaps this spectacular spiral galaxy about 180 million light-years away

NASA has just released a new image of a spectacular spiral galaxy captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. In this picture, the NGC 1961 unfurls its gorgeous spiral arms, dotted by glittering, blue regions of bright young stars.

NGC 1961 is an intermediate spiral and an AGN, or active galactic nuclei, type of galaxy that lies about 180 million light-years away in the constellation Camelopardalis.

AGN galaxies have very bright centers that often far outshine the rest of the galaxy at certain wavelengths of light. These galaxies likely have supermassive black holes at their cores churning out bright jets and winds that shape their evolution. According to NASA, the galaxy NGC 1961 is a fairly common type of AGN that emits low-energy-charged particles.

This image contains data from two proposals - one studied previously unobserved Arp galaxies, while the other looked at the progenitors and explosions of a variety of supernovae.

Take in the new view! 😍This just-released Hubble image of NGC 1961 shows a shining galaxy that resides about 180 million light-years away, in the constellation Camelopardalis.Read more: https://t.co/7I43uVJS23 pic.twitter.com/a0ZXWv7xDr

— Hubble (@NASAHubble) September 14, 2022

AGNs are the most luminous persistent sources of electromagnetic radiation in the cosmos, which means they can be used to discover distant objects. This radiation is produced by the action of a central supermassive black hole that is devouring material that gets too close to it.

Over the years, Hubble's powerful onboard instruments have observed various AGNs.