NGC 4603 and the Expanding Universe . ... Credit Copyright: Jeffrey Newman ( UC Berkeley ), NASA Explanation: NGC 4603, a galaxy with majestic spiral arms and intricate dust lanes, is 108 million light-years away. ... In fact, using the Space Telescope to pick out Cepheids in galaxies closer than NGC 4603, the Hubble Key Project Team has recently announced the completion of their 8 year effort to precisely measure galaxy distances and the expansion rate of the Universe - the Hubble Constant. ...