A giant among galaxies?









Michael West / ESO / ESA / NASA

The elliptical galaxy ESO 306-17 looks like a fuzzball with a bright center and a
large halo in this image, captured by the Hubble Space Telescope’s Advanced
Camera for Surveys. Click on the image to see a larger version.




Swirls of stars seem to surround a huge galaxy half a billion light-years from Earth. But that’s just an illusion: In reality, the hazy galaxy spotted by the Hubble Space Telescope is a big fat loner. The big fat mystery is … why?

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