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Universe of the Hubble Space Telescope 2001 Calendar

Spiral galaxy NGC 4414 is a massive spiral galaxy some 62 million light years distant toward the constellation Coma Berenices. The Hubble Space Telescope obtained this image in 1995 and 1999. The observations were used to detect, identify, and measure Cepheid variable stars in the galaxy, from which an accurate measure of the distance of the galaxy can be inferred. Combining measures of the distance and recession speed of a galaxy provides a measure of the expansion rate of the universe, which has implications for setting the distance and time scales of the universe. The outer regions of the galaxy appear blue because they contain young, high-mass blue, stars. Dark patches of obscuring dust are also evident in the spiral arms of the galaxy.