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Astronomy Picture of the Day- Government shutdown so no APOD Today. I will dig up some of my favorites - HCG 87: A Small Group of Galaxies
NASA ^ | 9 Aug, 2015 | Image Credit: GMOS-S Commissioning Team, Gemini Observatory

Posted on 11/05/2025 12:31:14 PM PST by MtnClimber

Explanation: Sometimes galaxies form groups. For example, our own Milky Way Galaxy is part of the Local Group of Galaxies. Small, compact groups, like Hickson Compact Group 87 (HCG 87) shown above, are interesting partly because they slowly self-destruct. Indeed, the galaxies of HCG 87 are gravitationally stretching each other during their 100-million year orbits around a common center. The pulling creates colliding gas that causes bright bursts of star formation and feeds matter into their active galaxy centers. HCG 87 is composed of a large edge-on spiral galaxy visible near the image center, an elliptical galaxy visible to its right, and a spiral galaxy visible near the top. The small spiral near the center might be far in the distance. Several stars from our Galaxy are also visible in the foreground. Studying groups like HCG 87 allows insight into how all galaxies form and evolve.


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

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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 11/05/2025 12:31:14 PM PST by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

2 posted on 11/05/2025 12:31:31 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 11/05/2025 12:32:24 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

These are just the ones we can see.

How many billions of galaxies are so far away we can’t see them?.............


4 posted on 11/05/2025 1:12:17 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

5 posted on 11/05/2025 1:14:08 PM PST by Diogenesis (Si vis pacem, para bellum)
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To: Diogenesis

Knowing what we DO know about the universe (which really ain’t that much), and seeing what we can see in photos, it’s still hard to grasp the immensity of it all. No, it’s impossible to grasp the immensity of it all. Sometimes I just ask myself, “why even bother trying? Just accept it. It seems like life would be so much simpler.


6 posted on 11/05/2025 4:48:42 PM PST by telescope115 (Ad Astra, Ad Deum…)
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To: Red Badger

Almost all of them.


7 posted on 11/05/2025 8:26:50 PM PST by Telepathic Intruder
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