NASA releases beautiful photo of a galaxy far far away

Social media mongers can safely bet on NASA to release brilliant pictures of celestial bodies every now and then. The space agency has a robust presence in online world and they continue to post interesting bits of info and images that thrill.

NASA hasn't disappointed this time as well. It has tweeted a beautiful picture of a galaxy far far away. The name of the galaxy is NGC 2336 in scientist speak. The galaxy was discovered in 19th century. The image shows that the galaxy is a spiral, similar to our own Milky Way Galaxy.

"Check out NGC 2336, a galaxy about 100 million light-years away. Discovered in 1876, by astronomer William Tempel, the image captured by @NASAHubble  shows the sheer size and beauty of this majestic galaxy," NASA tweeted.

The galaxy is 100 million light-years away! It means that even if we make a spaceship that travels at the speed of light, (~ 300 thousand kilometres per second) it will take us 100 million years to reach this galaxy.

This means an interesting thing.

The light from this galaxy that we see now, was emitted 100 million years ago! None of us or even our ancestors were alive when the light that reaches Earth today was emitted by the galaxy.

This leads to another interesting bit.

The galaxy NGC 2336 may have changed shape, collided with another galaxy, or may even have got obliterated. But we may only know that 100 million years after the event takes place. Because light from such an event will take that much time to reach us.

Space is super super huge. Feeling small yet?