Each week I take a look at newly released images and select my favourite. This week there has been a wide array of images from Hubble/MRO/IBEX but it was the image taken by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Chile that I liked best.

This image was taken of Bernard’s Galaxy, a Dwarf galaxy about 1.6 Million Light Years away. It is one of approximately 30 galaxies in our “Local Cluster”. The  galaxies within the local cluster are gravitationally bound, which basically means that while the universe might be expanding  these galaxies are not moving away from use. So they are now and will continue to be our neighbours. Bernard’s Galaxy or (NGC  6822) is approximately the 8th largest of these galaxies.

This image was taken by the ESO using a ground based 2.2 meter mirror giving us hope of fantastic images after the Hubble visual capabilities finally fail in about 5- 10 years.

There is a fantastic zoomable image available from here.

Bernards Galaxy - Credit ESO