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 8

                     NGC 1365: Majestic Island Universe
            Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby, Leonardo Orazi

   Explanation: Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island
   universe some 200,000 light-years across. Located a mere 60 million
   light-years away toward the chemical constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is
   a dominant member of the well-studied Fornax Cluster of galaxies. This
   impressively sharp color image shows the intense, reddish star forming
   regions near the ends of central bar and along the spiral arms, with
   details of the obscuring dust lanes cutting across the galaxy's bright
   core. At the core lies a supermassive black hole. Astronomers think NGC
   1365's prominent bar plays a crucial role in the galaxy's evolution,
   drawing gas and dust into a star-forming maelstrom and ultimately
   feeding material into the central black hole.

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