Galactic beauty: Stunning NGC 7513 galaxy captured by Hubble telescope

This spectacular image, taken by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, depicts NGC 7513, a barred spiral galaxy located 60 million light-years away in the Sculptor constellation in the southern hemisphere.

NGC 7513 is moving at an incredible speed of 1564 kilometres per second, and it is moving from us. As a point of comparison, the Earth orbits the Sun at a speed of around 30 kilometres per second. While it may seem unusual for NGC 7513 to be moving away from the Milky Way, it is actually a common occurrence.

According to the European Space Agency, the expansion of the universe causes the majority of galaxies to move away from each other, as the space between them stretches. This is in contrast to a select few, such as the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies, that are gravitationally bound and will eventually merge together. It is important to note that it is the space between galaxies that is expanding, not the galaxies themselves that are in motion.

#HubbleTopImage This barred spiral galaxy is moving at the astounding speed of 1564 km per second. For context, the Earth orbits the Sun at about 30 km per second. Read more about it here: https://t.co/L87PLfZACj📷 @esa / @HUBBLE_space & @NASA M. Stiavelli, P. Erwin et al. pic.twitter.com/hprRJ8APnN

— HUBBLE (@HUBBLE_space) January 19, 2023

The Hubble Space Telescope has made many groundbreaking discoveries throughout its 30 years of operation, including the first direct measurements of the rate of expansion of the universe, known as the Hubble constant, the discovery of dark energy and the study of galaxy formation and evolution. The space-based observatory has provided us with some of the most beautiful and striking images of the universe.

The HST has been serviced and upgraded several times by NASA space shuttles and is expected to continue to operate until at least 2030.