"Captivating Space Photo Reveals Enigmatic Cosmic 'Ghost' from the Universe's Past"

The Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of NGC 6684, a lenticular galaxy located 44 million light-years away in the constellation Pavo. Unlike the Milky Way, which is a spiral galaxy with rotating arms, NGC 6684 has a hazy, ghostly shape and a disk of stars. Lenticular galaxies contain older stars and may be aging spiral galaxies or the result of galactic mergers. Other lenticular galaxies recently imaged by Hubble include NGC 1023, NGC 5283, and NGC 3489. While NGC 6684 is not visible with backyard telescopes, the Andromeda galaxy (M31) can be seen in the eastern sky in late September and early October. Astronomers predict that Andromeda will collide with the Milky Way in about 4 billion years.