Here be galaxies. 🐉⁣ ⁣ Taken by @NASAHubble’s Wide Field Camera 3, a spiral galaxy lies in isolation, against a background of distant galaxies, 130 million light-years from Earth in the constellation Draco. ⁣ ⁣ For distant objects, scientists use the “Cosmic Distance Ladder” – a series of connected measurements which allow them to determine approximate distance.⁣ ⁣ Astronomers use this galaxy to improve how they measure distances in space. It has two phenomena that help calculate distances, supernova explosions and Cepheid variables – pulsing stars that predictably vary in size and brightness.⁣ ⁣ Image description: A spiral galaxy sits in the blackness of space that is dotted with stars in the foreground and distant galaxies in the background. The main galaxy has a cloudy white center with blue spires in every direction. The stars are white and yellow, and the far off galaxies are orange and white. ⁣ ⁣ Credit: @EuropeanSpaceAgency/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess et al⁣ ⁣ #NASA #Space #Astronomy #Galaxy #Astrophotography #Hubble #Spiral #Telescope