Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have captured an absolutely beautiful image of the spiral galaxy NGC 5643.

This Hubble image shows NGC 5643, a grand design spiral galaxy some 55 million light-years away in the constellation of Lupus. The color image is composed of infrared and optical observations from Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3). It is based on data obtained through four filters. The color results from assigning different hues to each monochromatic image associated with an individual filter. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / A. Riess et al / Mahdi Zamani.

NGC 5643 is located approximately 55 million light-years away in the constellation of Lupus.

The galaxy is classified as a grand design spiral because of its prominent and graceful spiral arms.

NGC 5643 has a diameter of about 100,000 light-years and hosts an active galactic nucleus of Seyfert 2 type.

Otherwise known as ESO 272-16 and LEDA 51969, it was discovered by James Dunlop on May 10, 1826.

In 2017, a Type Ia supernova called SN 2017cbv was observed in the outer reaches of NGC 5643.

“SN 2017cbv was a specific type in which a white dwarf steals so much mass from a companion star that it becomes unstable and explodes,” Hubble astronomers said.

“The explosion releases significant amounts of energy and lights up that part of the galaxy.”

“The observation was proposed by Adam Riess, who was awarded a Nobel Laureate in physics 2011 for his contributions to the discovery of the accelerating expansion of the Universe, alongside Saul Perlmutter and Brian Schmidt,” they said.

“Thirty different exposures, for a total of 9 hours observation time, together with the high resolution and clarity of Hubble, were needed to produce an image of such high level of detail and of beauty.”