In the Perseus Cluster lives an exceptional galaxy named NGC1277. It is two to three times more massive than our Milky Way, but with half or maybe even one third of the size, so that stars are up to one-hundredth of the average star-to-star distance in our home galaxy.

Massive and compact galaxies like this one were common in the distant past, in a much younger Universe. But this galaxy is only a few hundred million light years away from us. It is a relic galaxy, allowing us to have a closer look to otherwise distant and faint galaxies.

Galaxies like NGC1277 are so massive that most of them attracted others around them and merged, making it challenging to find pristine objects like NGC1277.

Galaxy chosen by Fernando Buitrago.