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Credit & Copyright: ESA/Hubble & NASA/D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University)
Explanation:
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy
NGC 7331
is often touted as an analog to our own
Milky Way.
About 50 million light-years distant in the northern constellation
Pegasus,
NGC 7331 was recognized early on as
a spiral
nebula and is actually one of the brighter
galaxies not included in Charles Messier's
famous
18th century catalog.
Since the galaxy's disk
is inclined to our line-of-sight, long
telescopic exposures often result in an image that evokes a strong
sense of depth.
In this Hubble
Space Telescope close-up, the galaxy's magnificent spiral
arms feature dark obscuring dust lanes, bright bluish clusters of
massive
young stars, and the telltale reddish glow of active star forming
regions.
The bright yellowish central regions harbor populations of older,
cooler stars.
Like the Milky Way,
a supermassive black hole lies at the core of spiral galaxy NGC 7331.
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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:
- APOD: 2025 September 4 Á NGC 4565: Galaxy on Edge
- APOD: 2025 August 22 Á A Tale of Two Nebulae
- APOD: 2025 August 19 Á Giant Galaxies in Pavo
- APOD: 2025 August 18 Á NGC 1309: A Useful Spiral Galaxy
- APOD: 2025 July 4 Á NGC 6946 and NGC 6939
- APOD: 2025 June 30 Á NGC 4651: The Umbrella Galaxy
- APOD: 2025 June 19 Á NGC 3521: Galaxy in a Bubble