APOD: 2020 April 6 - NGC 1672: Barred Spiral Galaxy from Hubble

Good afternoon, Rallypoint. Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is titled "Barred Spiral Galaxy from Hubble." There are two types of spiral galaxies in the classification sequence developed by Edwin Hubble in 1926. A barred spiral galaxy is a spiral galaxy with a central bar-shaped structure composed of dust, gas, stars, and quite likely a supermassive black hole. NGC 1672, featured here, is captured in spectacular detail by the Hubble Space Telescope. Visible features include 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. NGC 1672 lies about 60 million light years from us toward the constellation Dorado (Dolphinfish).