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Credit & Copyright: Ignacio
Diaz Bobillo
Explanation:
This group is popular in the northern spring.
Famous as the
Leo Triplet,
the three magnificent galaxies gather in one field of view.
Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest
telescopes, they can be introduced individually as
NGC 3628 (left), M66 (bottom right), and M65 (top).
All three are large
spiral
galaxies but
they tend to look dissimilar because their galactic disks are
tilted at different angles to our line of sight.
NGC 3628 is seen edge-on,
with obscuring dust lanes
cutting across the plane of the galaxy, while the disks
of M66 and
M65 are
both inclined enough to show off their spiral structure.
Gravitational interactions between galaxies in the group
have also left telltale signs, including the
warped
and inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the drawn out spiral arms of M66.
This gorgeous view of the region
spans about one degree (two full moons) on the sky.
The field covers over 500 thousand light-years at the
trio's estimated distance of 30 million light-years.
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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: Leo - M 65 - spiral galaxy
Publications with words: Leo - M 65 - spiral galaxy
See also: