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Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Twisted Disk of NGC 4753
NASA ^ | 31 Dec, 2024 | Image Credit: NASA, ESA, Hubble; Processing: Alexander Reinartz

Posted on 12/31/2024 12:06:17 PM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: What do you think this is? Here’s a clue: it's bigger than a bread box. Much bigger. The answer is that pictured NGC 4753 is a twisted disk galaxy, where unusual dark dust filaments provide clues about its history. No one is sure what happened, but a leading model holds that a relatively normal disk galaxy gravitationally ripped apart a dusty satellite galaxy while its precession distorted the plane of the accreted debris as it rotated. The cosmic collision is hypothesized to have started about a billion years ago. NGC 4753 is seen from the side, and possibly would look like a normal spiral galaxy from the top. The bright orange halo is composed of many older stars that might trace dark matter. The featured Hubble image was recently reprocessed to highlight ultraviolet and red-light emissions.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Astronomy Picture of the Day; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; 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 12/31/2024 12:06:17 PM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 12/31/2024 12:06:38 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: 21stCenturion; 21twelve; 4everontheRight; A Navy Vet; A_perfect_lady; abb; AFB-XYZ; AFPhys; ...
Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

3 posted on 12/31/2024 12:07:26 PM PST by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

It’s a galactic sized hammock!....................


4 posted on 12/31/2024 12:13:04 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: MtnClimber

It’s like a filigreed torus of space dust!


5 posted on 12/31/2024 12:14:36 PM PST by BradyLS (DO NOT FEED THE BEARS!)
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To: Red Badger

I saw an Anglo Saxon era ship but hammock works too.


6 posted on 12/31/2024 12:27:07 PM PST by MNJohnnie (Don't blame me, my congressman is MTG!)
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To: MNJohnnie

A galactic Rorschach Test!...............


7 posted on 12/31/2024 12:28:12 PM PST by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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To: MtnClimber

Wow.


8 posted on 12/31/2024 12:31:54 PM PST by No name given ( Anonymous is who you’ll know me as)
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To: Red Badger

LOL!


9 posted on 12/31/2024 12:33:05 PM PST by MNJohnnie (Don't blame me, my congressman is MTG!)
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To: MtnClimber

That’s one of the ones in my lower back.


10 posted on 12/31/2024 12:54:04 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire, or both.)
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To: Red Badger

Even Giants like to take a nap once in a while.


11 posted on 12/31/2024 1:05:57 PM PST by sjmjax
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To: MNJohnnie

Funny. I thought viking ship. Pretty close.


12 posted on 12/31/2024 2:26:45 PM PST by marktwain (The Republic is at risk. Resistance to the Democratic Party is Resistance to Tyranny. )
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To: marktwain

Yeah the Anglo Saxon and Viking ships are pretty similar. In fact Anglo Saxon and Viking cultures were pretty similar pre Christianity. The Vikings pretty much did to to the Anglo Saxons in Britain what the Anglo Saxons did to the Romano Britain’s.


13 posted on 12/31/2024 2:55:01 PM PST by MNJohnnie (Don't blame me, my congressman is MTG!)
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To: MtnClimber

They keep pushing dark matter into every place they can. Too bad they’ve never isolated it.


14 posted on 12/31/2024 4:11:38 PM PST by Seruzawa ("The Political left is the Garden of Eden of incompetence" - Marx the Smarter (Groucho))
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To: MtnClimber

A “lacework” galaxy…cool.


15 posted on 12/31/2024 4:13:11 PM PST by telescope115 (I NEED MY SPACE!!! 🔭)
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To: MtnClimber; BradyLS; little jeremiah
Great picture of the gauzy or reticulated veil of dark dust lanes surrounding NGC 4753's Galactic Core! (Brady's discription works too.) In the imagination it looks like:

A glowing galactic core caught in a giant fishing net!

Creamy Golden Butter draining in a collander!

Great picture today M.C.! Thanks!

16 posted on 12/31/2024 4:46:07 PM PST by Pete from Shawnee Mission ( )
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To: MtnClimber

It is surprising to me that any galaxy looks perfect.
Why? Galaxies are supposedly 200 million light years across. The light from the closest part of the galaxy would reach the earth 200 million years before the farthest part of that galaxy. I would expect a lot of movement in that 200 million years.


17 posted on 12/31/2024 6:45:59 PM PST by aimhigh (1 John 3:23 "And THIS is His commandment . . . . ")
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To: Pete from Shawnee Mission

Thanks for the ping.


18 posted on 12/31/2024 7:50:19 PM PST by little jeremiah (https://qalerts.app/)
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To: little jeremiah

I thought you would like it!


19 posted on 12/31/2024 7:56:26 PM PST by Pete from Shawnee Mission ( )
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