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Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby,
Observatorio El Sauce
Explanation:
Over 500,000 light years across,
NGC 6872
(top right) is a truly
enormous
barred spiral galaxy,
at least 5 times the size of our own very large Milky Way.
The appearance of this
giant galaxy's
distorted and stretched out spiral arms
suggests the magnificent wings of a giant bird.
Of course its popular moniker is the Condor galaxy.
It lies about 200 million light-years distant
toward the southern constellation Pavo, the Peacock.
Lined with
star-forming
regions, the distorted
spiral arms are due to NGC 6872's gravitational interaction
with the nearby smaller
galaxy IC 4970,
seen just above the giant galaxy's core.
The Pavo galaxy group's
dominant giant elliptical galaxy, NGC 6876
is below and left of the soaring Condor galaxy.
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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: spiral galaxy - interacting galaxies
Publications with words: spiral galaxy - interacting galaxies
See also: