A Star Outshines a Galaxy!
NASA has recently shared a stunning Hubble image of TYC 3203-450-1, a little-studied star, that outshines a galaxy in Lacerta.
Hubble Space Telescope had captured the image in December 2017.
Although both the star and the galaxy are within the same Lizard constellation, Lacerta, the star is much closer than the much more distant galaxy. Lacerta is one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union.
TYC 3203-450-1 is a “foreground star”, as astronomers studying distant objects call these stars, because they seem to be much brighter and bigger than the starry background behind them.
But astronomers are often not very happy about such foreground stars as their bright light contaminates the faint light from the more distant and interesting objects they actually want to study, according to NASA.