Credit & Copyright: ESA/Hubble & NASA/D. Milisavljevic (Purdue University)
Explanation:
Big, beautiful spiral galaxy
NGC 7331
is often touted as an analog to our own
Milky Way.
About 50 million light-years distant in the northern constellation
Pegasus,
NGC 7331 was recognized early on as
a spiral
nebula and is actually one of the brighter
galaxies not included in Charles Messier's
famous
18th century catalog.
Since the galaxy's disk
is inclined to our line-of-sight, long
telescopic exposures often result in an image that evokes a strong
sense of depth.
This Hubble Space Telescope
close-up spans some 40,000 light-years.
The galaxy's magnificent spiral
arms feature dark obscuring dust lanes, bright bluish clusters of massive
young stars, and the telltale reddish glow of active star forming regions.
The bright yellowish central regions harbor populations of older,
cooler stars.
Like the Milky Way,
a supermassive black hole lies at the core of spiral galaxy NGC 7331.
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& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: spiral galaxy
Publications with words: spiral galaxy
See also: