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  • Astronomy Picture of the Day -- NGC 5078 and Friends

    05/25/2016 3:16:55 PM PDT · by SunkenCiv · 1 replies
    NASA ^ | Wednesday, May 25, 2016 | (see photo credit)
    Explanation: This sharp telescopic field of view holds two bright galaxies. Barred spiral NGC 5101 (top right) and nearly edge-on system NGC 5078 are separated on the sky by about 0.5 degrees or about the apparent width of a full moon. Found within the boundaries of the serpentine constellation Hydra, both are estimated to be around 90 million light-years away and similar in size to our own large Milky Way galaxy. In fact, if they both lie at the same distance their projected separation would be only 800,000 light-years or so. That's easily less than half the distance between the...