NGC 6503: a lone galaxy lost in space

The Space Telescope Science Institute Press Release

14 June 2015 Astronomy Now

This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows NGC 6503. The galaxy, which lies about 18 million light-years away, is at the edge of a strangely empty patch of space called the Local Void. This new image shows a very rich set of colours, adding to the detail seen in previous images. Image credit: NASA, ESA.
This NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image shows NGC 6503. The galaxy, which lies about 18 million light-years away, is at the edge of a strangely empty patch of space called the Local Void. This new image shows a very rich set of colours, adding to the detail seen in previous images. Image credit: NASA, ESA.
The Local Void is a huge stretch of space that is at least 150 million light-years across. It seems completely empty of stars or galaxies. This galaxy’s odd location on the edge of this never-land led astronomer Stephen James O’Meara to dub it the “Lost-In-Space galaxy” in his 2007 book, Hidden Treasures.

NGC 6503 is 18 million light-years away from us in the northern circumpolar constellation of Draco. NGC 6503 spans some 30,000 light-years, about a third of the size of the Milky Way.

This Hubble Space Telescope image shows NGC 6503 in striking detail and with a rich set of colours. Bright red patches of gas can be seen scattered through its swirling spiral arms, mixed with bright blue regions that contain newly forming stars. Dark brown dust lanes snake across the galaxy’s bright arms and center, giving it a mottled appearance.

The Hubble Advanced Camera for Surveys data for NGC 6503 were taken in April 2003, and the Wide Field Camera 3 data were taken in August 2013.

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