Astronomy Picture of the Day -- Arp 78: Peculiar Galaxy in Aries

NASA ^ | July 07, 2011 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Peculiar spiral galaxy Arp 78 is found within the boundaries of the head strong constellation Aries, some 100 million light-years beyond the stars and nebulae of our Milky Way galaxy. Also known as NGC 772, the island universe is over 100 thousand light-years across and sports a single prominent outer spiral arm in this detailed cosmic portrait. Its brightest companion galaxy, compact NGC 770, is toward the upper right of the larger spiral. NGC 770's fuzzy, elliptical appearance contrasts nicely with a spiky foreground Milky Way star in matching yellowish hues. Tracking along sweeping dust lanes and lined with young blue star clusters, Arp 78's large spiral arm is likely due to gravitational tidal interactions. Faint streams of material seem to connect Arp 78 with its nearby companion galaxies.

[SunkenCiv]

[Image Credit & Copyright: Stephen Leshin]

[SunkenCiv]

join or quit list APoD 'blog post new APoD topic Astronomy Picture of the Day topic & keyword Astronomy Chat, Bloggers & keyword Science Chat, Bloggers & keyword NASA's APoD archive Calendar 1995-present APoD on your desktop

[Red_Devil 232]

A big

@

sign in the sky.

I wounder what the rest of the addy is?

[djf]

Beautiful.
Hubble pic?

[Louis Foxwell]

Got to be. Mind numbing pics coming from Hubble.

[InvisibleChurch]

Thanks

[TheOldLady]

Civ, is that a closeup of your little eye-winky thingy in your occasional digital smile?

:')

[ixtl]

Just another example of “The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine.” -Sir Arthur Eddington

[Texas Songwriter]

Please post a photo of the Elenin Brown Dwarf....educate us on this subject.