Posted on 05/29/2025 1:22:53 PM PDT by MtnClimber
Explanation: Grand spiral galaxies often seem to get all the attention, flaunting young, bright, blue star clusters and pinkish star forming regions along graceful, symmetric spiral arms. But small galaxies form stars too, like irregular dwarf galaxy Sextans A. Its young star clusters and star forming regions are gathered into a gumdrop-shaped region a mere 5,000 light-years across. Seen toward the navigational constellation Sextans, the small galaxy lies some 4.5 million light-years distant. That puts it near the outskirts of the local group of galaxies, that includes the large, massive spirals Andromeda and our own Milky Way. Brighter Milky Way foreground stars appear spiky and yellowish in this colorful telescopic view of Sextans A.
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.
🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔
I’ve never been able to see it through a telescope, but, when I finally get to use my Dwarf 3 scope again, and the sky is right, I hope to take a stab at it.
Interesting, and practically next door in astronomical terms.
Tiny little thing. Only 30 quadrillion miles across.
Wow.
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