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.

                               2020 January 16

                             NGC 247 and Friends
      Image Credit & Copyright: Acquisition - Eric Benson, Processing -
                                Dietmar Hager

   Explanation: About 70,000 light-years across, NGC 247 is a spiral
   galaxy smaller than our Milky Way. Measured to be only 11 million
   light-years distant it is nearby though. Tilted nearly edge-on as seen
   from our perspective, it dominates this telescopic field of view toward
   the southern constellation Cetus. The pronounced void on one side of
   the galaxy's disk recalls for some its popular name, the Needle's Eye
   galaxy. Many background galaxies are visible in this sharp galaxy
   portrait, including the remarkable string of four galaxies just below
   and left of NGC 247 known as Burbidge's Chain. Burbidge's Chain
   galaxies are about 300 million light-years distant. NGC 247 itself is
   part of the Sculptor Group of galaxies along with the shiny spiral NGC
   253.

                        Tomorrow's picture: in stereo
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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