Astronomy Picture of the Day -- M106 Close Up

NASA ^ | October 03, 2013 | (see photo credit)

[SunkenCiv]

Explanation: Close to the Great Bear (Ursa Major) and surrounded by the stars of the Hunting Dogs (Canes Venatici), this celestial wonder was discovered in 1781 by the metric French astronomer Pierre Mechain. Later, it was added to the catalog of his friend and colleague Charles Messier as M106. Modern deep telescopic views reveal it to be an island universe: a spiral galaxy around 30 thousand light-years across located only about 21 million light-years beyond the stars of the Milky Way. Along with prominent dust lanes and a bright central core, this colorful composite image highlights youthful blue star clusters and reddish stellar nurseries that trace the galaxy's spiral arms. The high resolution galaxy portrait is a mosaic of data from Hubble's sharp ACS camera combined with groundbased color image data. M106 (aka NGC 4258) is a nearby example of the Seyfert class of active galaxies, seen across the spectrum from radio to X-rays. Energetic active galaxies are powered by matter falling into a massive central black hole.

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[Credit, Composite Image Data: Hubble Legacy Archive; Adrian Zsilavec, Michelle Qualls, Adam Block / NOAO / AURA / NSF ; Processing: André van der Hoeven]

[SunkenCiv]

Note: How to follow APOD if the US government shuts down. I managed to forget to alter one link in the previous days' postings, just follow the one above to visit the original pages.

The Big One

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Makes me think of the introduction of the “Outer Limits” TV show.