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Credit & Copyright: Daniel Verschatse
Explanation:
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 6744
is nearly 175,000 light-years
across, larger than
our own Milky Way.
It lies some 30 million light-years distant in the southern
constellation Pavo appearing as a faint, extended object in
small telescopes.
We see the disk of the nearby island universe tilted towards our
line of sight.
This
remarkably distinct and detailed galaxy portrait
covers an area about the angular size
of the full moon.
In it, the giant galaxy's yellowish core is dominated by the light from
old, cool stars.
Beyond the core, spiral arms filled with
young blue star clusters and pinkish star forming regions sweep past
a smaller satellite galaxy at the lower left,
reminiscent of the Milky Way's satellite galaxy the Large
Magellanic Cloud.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
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: spiral galaxy
Publications with words: spiral galaxy
See also: