Rare and Mesmerizing Galaxies Captured by Hubble and NASA Telescopes

NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day features NGC 1566, also known as the Spanish Dancer Spiral Galaxy, located about 40 million light-years away towards the constellation of Dorado. The image was captured by the Hubble Space Telescope and shows blue star clusters and dark cosmic dust lanes which follow two prominent spiral arms. The galaxy has been studied to understand star formation, supernovas, and its unusually active center. The Hubble Space Telescope has advanced optical instruments such as the Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field Camera 3 to capture such objects.