Posted on 01/08/2013 6:47:16 PM PST by SunkenCiv
Explanation: The grand, winding arms are almost mesmerizing in this face-on view of NGC 7424, a spiral galaxy with a prominent central bar. About 40 million light-years distant in the headlong constellation Grus, this island universe is also about 100,000 light-years across making it remarkably similar to our own Milky Way. Following along the winding arms, many bright clusters of massive young stars can be found. The star clusters themselves are several hundred light-years in diameter. And while massive stars are born in the arms of NGC 7424, they also die there. Notably, this galaxy was home to a powerful stellar explosion, supernova SN 2001ig, which faded well before the above image was recorded.
(Excerpt) Read more at 129.164.179.22 ...
[Credit & Copyright: SSRO-South (S. Mazlin, J. Harvey, D. Verschatse, R. Gilbert) & Kevin Ivarsen (UNC/CTIO/PROMPT)]
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Simply beautiful.
BTW, your APoD desktop link is broken, but I found it anyway.
Caught a PBS deal over the holidays about the latest telescope data. I was reloading shotgun shells at the time which I find therapeutic since the election, but the gist was that the rate of known universe expansion is ACCELERATING, not slowing as one might suspect.
To stay with the firearm metaphor it is as if the powder charge is still in the ignition phase building pressure in the barrel...like the Big Bang just lit off!
So what we think is the “end of time” is just nanoseconds after the magnum primer got struck.
Kinda puts us in our place.
Careful now. That's how Al Roker got in trouble at the White House.
It’s long past time that I thanked you for these awesome pictures, and thank you for taking your time every day to bring such wonder and beauty into our lives.
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