Astronomy Picture of the Day - The Images not Posted during the Government Shutdown - Spiral Galaxy NGC 3370 from Hubble

NASA ^ | 5 Nov, 2025 | Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, A. Riess, K. Noll

[MtnClimber]

Explanation: Is this what our own Milky Way Galaxy looks like from far away? Similar in size and grand design to our home Galaxy (although without the central bar), spiral galaxy NGC 3370 lies about 100 million light-years away toward the constellation of the Lion (Leo). Recorded here in exquisite detail by the Hubble Space Telescope, the big, beautiful face-on spiral is not only photogenic, but has proven sharp enough to study individual stars known as Cepheids. These pulsating stars have been used to accurately determine NGC 3370's distance. NGC 3370 was chosen for this study because in 1994 the spiral galaxy was also home to a well studied stellar explosion -- a Type Ia supernova. Combining the known distance to this standard candle supernova, based on the Cepheid measurements, with observations of supernovas at even greater distances has helped to reveal the size and expansion rate of the entire Universe itself.

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TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: apod; nasa

[MtnClimber]

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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.

[MtnClimber]

[MtnClimber]

Pinging the APOD list

🪐 🌟 🌌 🍔

[Diogenesis]

[know.your.why]

galaxy NGC 3370 lies about 100 million light-years away

My die-hard Christian brother actually gets offended reading this kind factual scientific data about (fillintheblank) incomprehensible distances and time spans. He has these great rubber-band theories about how God created the universe in one day. Is it okay to ask Christians here how they account for the fact that it took 300 million years for the light from this to be visible on Earth?

[know.your.why]

300=100. Sorry.

[MtnClimber]

The bible is full of parables. The “days” in the creation is the order, not the exact time.

[Seruzawa]

It was all created in place. Including dinosaur bones and the light between. galaxies. All created together. That’s what my Dad used to tell me. God is testing us and trying to fool us so we can be punished for not believing it all came to be 5000 years ago or something.

[JPG]

My die-hard Christian brother actually gets offended reading this kind factual scientific data about (fillintheblank) incomprehensible distances and time spans.

There are profound spiritual explanations that don't violate the laws of science, or human reason. Strict scriptural literalists back themselves into a corner.

[AFB-XYZ]

Depends on how dogmatic they are. Maybe try pointing out to them that the Bible doesn’t say that a day IS a thousand years, but rather it’s AS (i.e., like) a thousand years. The two meanings are parsecs apart. Does the word “day” to them mean ONLY a literal 24-hour period of time?

[know.your.why]

It was all created in place.

Based on what argument?

[telescope115]

Christians here how they account for the fact that it took 300 million years for the light from this to be visible on Earth?

I can’t reconcile the differences factually. I just let my faith I God rule, and accept all of it.

[JimRed]

God is testing us and trying to fool us so we can be punished for not believing it all came to be 5000 years ago or something.

Since God loves us, why would He try to fool us so He can punish us?

[Montana_Sam]

The Book of Job, Chapter 38 lays out the rational case
when the Creator asks, "Where were you when (fill in the blank)?"

It is enough to know that science no longer seems to have even a good guess as to how the universe came to be, or how life began. When I was a kid, many years ago, creation and "the big bang" were conceptually synonymous. Current cosmology has shifted to the point where the big bang is simply a cyclical expand/collapse kinda thingy.

Entertaining, maybe, but definitive science it ain't.