Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                               2021 January 28

                             Messier 66 Close Up
     Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing & Copyright: Leo Shatz

   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
   reprocessed 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 pinksh star forming regions. Messier 66, also
   known as NGC 3627, is the brightest of the three galaxies in the
   gravitationaly interacting Leo Triplet.

            Tomorrow's picture: North America from North America
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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