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Credit & Copyright: Adam Block
(Caelum Observatory),
Acknowledgement: R. Jay GaBany
Explanation:
Dust lanes seem to swirl around the core of
Messier 96 in this
colorful,
detailed portrait of the beautiful
island universe.
Of course M96
is a spiral galaxy,
and counting the faint arms extending
beyond the brighter central region it spans 100 thousand
light-years or so, about the size of our own Milky Way.
M96 is known to be 38 million light-years distant, a dominant
member of the Leo I galaxy group.
Background galaxies and smaller Leo I group members
can be found by examining the picture, but accomplished
astro-imager Adam Block notes he is most intrigued
by the edge-on spiral galaxy that
apparently lies behind
the outer spiral arm near the 10 o'clock position.
The edge-on spiral appears to be about 1/5 the size
of M96.
If the spiral is similar in actual size to M96, then it
lies about 5 times
farther
away.
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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 - group of galaxies
Publications with words: spiral galaxy - group of galaxies
See also: