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Credit & Copyright: Dieter Willasch
(Astro-Cabinet)
Explanation:
At the top right,
large spiral galaxy NGC 1055 joins
spiral Messier 77 in this
sharp cosmic view
toward the aquatic
constellation
Cetus.
The narrowed, dusty appearance of edge-on spiral
NGC 1055
contrasts nicely with the face-on view of
M77's bright nucleus
and spiral arms.
Both over 100,000 light-years across, the pair are dominant members
of a small galaxy group about 60 million light-years away.
At that estimated distance,
M77 is one
of the most remote objects in
Charles Messier's catalog and
is separated from fellow island universe NGC 1055 by at
least 500,000 light-years.
The field of view is about the size of the full Moon
on the sky
and
includes colorful foreground Milky Way stars (with diffraction
spikes)
along with more distant background galaxies.
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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: galaxy pair
Publications with words: galaxy pair
See also: