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Credit & Copyright: F. Bresolin,
R.-P. Kudritzki, R. Mendez
(Institute
for Astronomy, Univ. Hawaii)
Explanation:
Far beyond
the local
group of galaxies lies
NGC 3621,
some 22 million light-years away.
Found in the serpentine southern constellation
Hydra,
the loose spiral arms of this gorgeous
island universe are loaded with
luminous young star clusters and dark dust lanes.
Still, for earthbound astronomers NGC 3621 is not just
another
pretty face-on spiral galaxy.
Some of its
brighter
stars have been used as
standard
candles to establish important estimates of
extragalactic distances and the
scale
of the Universe.
This color picture was constructed from astronomical image
data recorded with the Very Large Telescope
Antu, at Paranal
Observatory in Chile.
At the original resolution, individual,
hot supergiant stars can
be identified and studied across NGC 3621.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: NGC 3621 - spiral galaxy - distance scale
Publications with words: NGC 3621 - spiral galaxy - distance scale
See also: