NGC 1566: The Spanish Dancer Spiral Galaxy
An island universe of billions of stars, NGC 1566 lies about 60 million light-years away in the southern constellation Dorado . Popularly known as the Spanish Dancer galaxy, it's seen face-on from our Milky Way perspective . A gorgeous grand design spiral, this galaxy's two graceful spiral arms span over 100,000 light-years, traced by bright blue star clusters , pinkish starforming regions, and swirling cosmic dust lanes. NGC 1566's flaring center makes the spiral one of the closest and brightest Seyfert galaxies . It likely houses a central supermassive black hole wreaking havoc on surrounding stars, gas, and dust . In this sharp southern galaxy portrait, the spiky stars lie well within the Milky Way.