Clusters of bright blue stars and glowing red gas clouds steal the show in this new Hubble image of a glittering galaxy that stopped me in my tracks

A galaxy glittering with stars and blue and red gas clouds.

Few photos make me stop and ponder as much as those taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. And the latest of these, published by NASA, shows a majestic spiral galaxy that the space agency describes as “glittering with star clusters” and humongous clouds of cosmic gas.

NGC 3137 is a spiral galaxy which, in cosmic terms, is located down the road from Earth, just 53 million light-years away in the constellation of Antlia (the Air Pump). NASA says that the latest image, crafted from observations across six different color bands, reveals the nearby galaxy in “fantastic detail.”