The appearance of the spiral galaxy NGC 5643 captured by the Hubble Space Telescope. The center shows the yellow light emitted by old stars, and the spiral arms display the blue light produced by cosmic dust and young stars. /Courtesy of European Space Agency (ESA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)

NGC 5643 is a giant spiral galaxy located about 55 million light-years (a light-year is the distance light travels in one year, approximately 9.46 trillion kilometers) from Earth. This photo, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, clearly reveals the center of NGC 5643, which reaches up to 40,000 light-years. The center of the spiral galaxy glows yellow as it is composed of older stars. Strong X-rays emit from the inner region, appearing as white dots. The spiral arms extend from the center, radiating blue and red light from cosmic dust and young stars. NGC 5643 is classified as a Seyfert galaxy because it hosts a supermassive black hole at its center.