Cosmic “Cinnamon Bun” spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope

UGC 12588 spiral galaxy, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Credit: ESA / Hubble and NASA, R. Tully, Acknowledgments: Gagandeep Anand

Observed with the NASA/THAT Hubble Space Telescope, the faint galaxy depicted in this image is known as UGC 12588. Unlike many spiral galaxies, UGC 12588 shows neither a star bar in the center nor the classic prominent spiral arm pattern. Instead, for a viewer, its circular, white, and mostly unstructured center makes this galaxy more like a cinnamon bun than a megastructure of stars and gas in space.

Located in the constellation of Andromeda in the Northern Hemisphere, this galaxy is classified as a spiral galaxy. Unlike the classic image of a spiral galaxy, however, the huge arms of stars and gases in UGC 12588 are very faint, indistinct, and tightly wrapped around its center. The clearest view of the spiral arms comes from the bluer stars scattered around the edges of the galaxy highlighting regions where new star formation is very likely to occur.