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Credit & Copyright: Stephen Leshin,
Collaboration:
Deidre Hunter and
LARI
Explanation:
Grand spiral galaxies
often seem to get all the glory, flaunting their
young, bright, blue star clusters in beautiful, symmetric spiral arms.
But small galaxies form stars too, like nearby NGC 6822, also known as
Barnard's Galaxy.
Beyond the rich starfields in the constellation Sagittarius,
NGC 6822
is a mere 1.5 million light-years away, a member of our
Local Group
of galaxies.
About 7,000 light-years across,
the dwarf irregular galaxy is seen to be
filled with young blue stars and mottled with
the telltale pinkish hydrogen glow
of star forming regions in the deep
color composite image.
Contributing to the science of
LITTLE THINGS,
this portrait of a small galaxy was made as part of the
Lowell
Amateur Research Initiative (LARI),
welcoming collaborations with amateur astronomers.
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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: dwarf galaxy
Publications with words: dwarf galaxy
See also: