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Credit & Copyright: NASA,
ESA,
Hubble Heritage
(STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration.
Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin and Robert Gendler
Explanation:
Big, beautiful
spiral
galaxy Messier 66
lies a mere 35 million light-years away.
The
gorgeous island universe
is about 100 thousand light-years across, similar in size to the Milky Way.
This
Hubble
Space Telescope
close-up view spans a region about 30,000
light-years wide around the galactic core.
It shows the galaxy's disk dramatically inclined to our line-of-sight.
Surrounding its bright core, the likely home of a supermassive black
hole, obscuring dust lanes and young, blue star clusters sweep
along spiral arms
dotted with the tell-tale glow of pinkish star forming regions.
Messier 66, also known as NGC 3627, is the brightest of the three
galaxies in the gravitationally interacting
Leo Triplet.
Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin and Robert Gendler
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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