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Astronomy Picture of the Day - Spiral Galaxy M74: A Sharper View
APOD.NASA.gov ^ | 22 Jul, 2022 | Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Processing Copyright: Robert Eder

Posted on 07/22/2022 4:07:49 PM PDT by MtnClimber

Explanation: Beautiful spiral galaxy Messier 74 (also known as NGC 628) lies some 32 million light-years away toward the constellation Pisces. An island universe of about 100 billion stars with two prominent spiral arms, M74 has long been admired by astronomers as a perfect example of a grand-design spiral galaxy. M74's central region is brought into a stunning, sharp focus in this recently processed image using publicly available data from the James Webb Space Telescope. The colorized combination of image data sets is from two of Webb's instruments NIRcam and MIRI, operating at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths. It reveals cooler stars and dusty structures in the grand-design spiral galaxy only hinted at in previous space-based views.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: nasa
To be added or removed from the Astronomy Picture of the Day ping list please send me a request via "Private Reply" (Mail).

For more detail go to the link and click on the image for a high definition image. You can then move the magnifying glass cursor then click to zoom in and click again to zoom out. When zoomed in you can scan by moving the side bars on the bottom and right side of the image.

1 posted on 07/22/2022 4:07:49 PM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 07/22/2022 4:08:04 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; America_Right; AZ .44 MAG; ...
Pinging the APOD list.

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔


3 posted on 07/22/2022 4:08:34 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Just imagine...
that is what it looked like 32 million years ago...
If/when we gain more knowledge, perhaps we can determine
what these far away objects look like now...


4 posted on 07/22/2022 4:23:27 PM PDT by Repeal The 17th (Get out of the matrix and get a real life.)
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To: Repeal The 17th

We’ll know what they look like now in 32 million years 🤪


5 posted on 07/22/2022 4:32:14 PM PDT by NWFree (Somebody has to say it)
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To: Repeal The 17th

Galaxies hardly change in 32 million years. I think it takes about a hundred million years for one of them to go around once.


6 posted on 07/22/2022 4:39:37 PM PDT by coloradan (They're not the mainstream media, they're the gaslight media. It's what they do. )
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To: Repeal The 17th

The only way for Earth people to gain that knowledge is to wait 32 million years for the image to arrive here.

Then, if there are any left, the Earth people of 32002022 will be able to see what that galaxy looked like in 2022, assuming it is still there, and assuming they are still interested.


7 posted on 07/22/2022 4:40:08 PM PDT by enumerated ( )
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To: Repeal The 17th

dont worry, you may get lucky and see it photoshopped into a local area’s nightscape and get impressed by the “Explanation” how “...the local photography took 157 pictures...” etc etc etc...

thats the way you’ll see it real time!!


8 posted on 07/22/2022 4:47:05 PM PDT by sit-rep ( )
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To: MtnClimber

Cool unimaginably hot stuff.


9 posted on 07/22/2022 5:24:33 PM PDT by Theophilous Meatyard III
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To: MtnClimber

32 million light years away and contains 100 Billion stars.
.
Is That Correct?


10 posted on 07/22/2022 5:50:53 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (We Are JONAH)
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To: Big Red Badger

And we call
Messers M74,
That is Not doing
It Justice.


11 posted on 07/22/2022 5:52:58 PM PDT by Big Red Badger (We Are JONAH)
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To: Big Red Badger
32 million light years away and contains 100 Billion stars.

Yes, I think that is correct. At least it was about 32 million years ago.

12 posted on 07/22/2022 6:00:16 PM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of Colorado scenery and wildlife, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: Big Red Badger

Give or take.

100 billion is a very round number. They certainly did not count them all.


13 posted on 07/22/2022 6:25:06 PM PDT by Pikachu_Dad ("the media are selling you a line of soap)
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To: MtnClimber; All
Thanks (as always!) Mtn Climber!

I wonder...looking at the picture, do galaxies generally turn clockwise? Or counterclockwise? (Some look like disturbed wasp nest!)

A sort of slide.....Here is a link to article on Water and Coriolis force at:

https://www.livescience.com/33567-toilet-swirl-direction-equator.html

Snip....."Shapiro began his experiment by filling a large, shallow dish with water, making sure that the water entered the dish with a clockwise swirl, the opposite direction you'd expect it to turn in the Northern Hemisphere. He covered the dish with a plastic sheet, which removed any air drag, and let the water stand for 24 hours to negate its initial spin. When Shapiro first unplugged a drain at the bottom of the dish, he didn't notice any rotation to the water as it drained. However, after some time the water eventually began to swirl counterclockwise, though at a slow rate.

A few years later, another research team at the University of Sydney showed the opposite to be true in the Southern Hemisphere."

Anything like that on a galactic scale?

14 posted on 07/22/2022 7:10:18 PM PDT by Pete from Shawnee Mission ( )
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission
"... do galaxies generally turn clockwise? Or counterclockwise? "

Let's do a thought experiment.

Imagine that you are looking at a galaxy 1 million light years away from earth and that it appears to be rotating clockwise.

Now imagine that there is an observer on a habitable planet in the same direction as that galaxy and 2 million light years away from earth.

From that distant observers vantage point, in which direction will the galaxy be rotating?

15 posted on 07/22/2022 9:23:32 PM PDT by William Tell
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To: MtnClimber

I see a Klingon Bird of Prey decloaking, almost inverted, in the lower right corner.


16 posted on 07/23/2022 12:10:54 AM PDT by Delta 21 (It started as a virus, and mutated into an IQ test.)
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To: William Tell; Pete from Shawnee Mission
"From that distant observers vantage point, in which direction will the galaxy be rotating?

On earth, water rotates in the same direction in the northern and in the southern hemisphere. It's just that on the opposite hemisphere, you're looking at it from the other side. It does that, though, because gravity and the spherical surface of the earth constrain the water to move on the surface, subjecting it to the Coriolis force. As it moves toward the equator, it must move faster in order to stay on the sphere. It is this sideways acceleration that causes it to spin.

In the universe, there is no spherical surface and even no known center. Therefore, I would expect no uniform spin. I would expect no consistent spin direction of galaxies. It would still look like it's spinning the opposite direction when you look at it from the other side, but you would see galaxies spinning in both directions regardless of where you looked from. On earth, water spins consistently everywhere you look at it in one hemisphere.

17 posted on 07/23/2022 4:14:22 AM PDT by norwaypinesavage (Capitalism is what happens when you leave people alone.)
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