Tag: deep space

NGC 4565: Galaxy on Edge

Posted by Nexus – 05/03/2010

[via APOD]

Click image for full-size picture (1800x1394)

Magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is viewed edge-on from planet Earth. Also known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile, bright NGC 4565 is a stop on many telescopic tours of the northern sky, in the faint but well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices.

This sharp, colorful image reveals the galaxy’s bulging central core cut by obscuring dust lanes that lace NGC 4565′s thin galactic plane. An assortment of other galaxies is included in the pretty field of view. Neighboring galaxy NGC 4562 is at the upper right. NGC 4565 itself lies about 40 million light-years distant, spanning some 100,000 light-years.

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Chasing Carina

Posted by Nexus – 27/02/2010

[via APOD]

Click image for full-size (2200x1434)

A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, aka NGC 3372, spans over 300 light-years.

Near the upper right of this expansive skyscape, it is much larger than the more northerly Orion Nebula. In fact, the Carina Nebula is one of our galaxy’s largest star-forming regions and home to young, extremely massive stars, including the still enigmatic variable Eta Carinae, a star with well over 100 times the mass of the Sun.

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