ABOUT THIS IMAGE:

Far away in the Ursa Major constellation is a swirling galaxy that would not look out of place on a coffee made by a starry-eyed barista. NGC 3895 is a barred spiral galaxy that was first spotted by William Herschel on March 18, 1790 and was later observed by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope. Otherwise know as LEDA 36907, UGC 6785 and KPG 303b, NGC 3895 has a diameter of approximately 45,000 light-years.

Together with NGC 3894, it forms the gravitationally bound pair of galaxies KPG 303; and the pair forms a trio of galaxies with LEDA 36862.

NGC 3895 is also a member of the NGC 3963 group of galaxies.

Hubble's orbit high above the Earth's distorting atmosphere allows astronomers to make the very high resolution observations that are essential to opening new windows on planets, stars and galaxies - such as this beautiful view of NGC 3895. The telescope is positioned approximately 570 km above the ground, where it whirls around Earth at 28,000 kilometers per hour and takes 96 minutes to complete one orbit.