Close-up shot of the galaxy 85 million light-years away

NASA released the latest image of the IC 2051 spiral galaxy in the constellation Son Son taken with the Hubble space telescope.

Galaxy IC 2051 taken by Hubble telescope.(Image: NASA / ESA).

"Spiral galaxies like the IC 2051 are shaped a little like a flying disk when viewed from the side. It has a thin disk shape with a large bulge in the center, where many stars are clustered , " said the Space Agency. Europe (ESA) said. "The bulge plays a very important role in how galaxies evolved, affecting the development of supermassive black holes lurking at the center of most spiral galaxies."

IC 2051, also known as ESO 4-7 or Leda 13,999 , was first discovered in December 1900 by American astronomer DeLisle Stewart. The galaxy is located to the south of the constellation Son Shan, 85 million light-years from Earth and has an estimated diameter of about 55,000 light-years.

This close-up image of the IC 2051 was taken with a wide field camera 3 - the most technologically advanced device on the Hubble Space Telescope. In December, NASA released an amazing array of photographs of a distant universe, such as the galaxy Hoag, NGC 5468, NGC 3175 or the Horsehead Nebula.

Hubble was launched in 1990 and operates in orbit of the Earth at an altitude of about 610km. It is designed to exist for at least 15 years in the universe but has been operating for nearly 30 years.