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Credit & Copyright: Francis Bozon
Explanation:
This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around the March
equinox and
the
northern hemisphere spring.
Famous as the
Leo Triplet,
the three magnificent galaxies found in the prominent
constellation
Leo
gather here in one astronomical field of view.
Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modest
telescopes, they can be introduced individually as
NGC 3628 (right), M66 (upper left), and M65 (bottom).
All three are large
spiral galaxies but
tend to look dissimilar, because their galactic disks are
tilted at different angles to our line of sight.
NGC 3628,
also known as the Hamburger Galaxy,
is temptingly seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes
cutting across its puffy galactic plane.
The disks
of M66 and
M65 are
both inclined enough to show off their spiral structure.
Gravitational interactions between galaxies in the group
have left telltale signs, including the tidal tails and
warped,
inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the drawn out spiral arms of M66.
This gorgeous view
of the region spans over 1 degree (two full moons) on the sky
in a frame that covers over half a million light-years at the
trio's estimated distance of 30 million light-years.
Of course
the spiky foreground stars lie well within our own Milky Way.
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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: Leo - M 65 - spiral galaxy
Publications with words: Leo - M 65 - spiral galaxy
See also: