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Credit & Copyright: Anthony Ayiomamitis
(TWAN)
Explanation:
As far as ghosts go, Mirach's Ghost isn't really that
scary.
In fact,
Mirach's Ghost is just a faint,
fuzzy galaxy, well known to astronomers,
that happens to be seen nearly along the line-of-sight to
Mirach,
a bright star.
Centered in
this star
field, Mirach is also called Beta
Andromedae.
About 200 light-years distant,
Mirach is a red giant
star, cooler than the Sun but
much larger and so intrinsically much brighter than our
parent star.
In most telescopic views, glare and
diffraction spikes tend to
hide things that lie near Mirach and make the faint, fuzzy galaxy
look like a ghostly internal reflection of the almost
overwhelming starlight.
Still, appearing
in this sharp image just above
and to the right, Mirach's Ghost is cataloged as
galaxy NGC 404
and is estimated to be some 10 million light-years away.
Take a survey on
Aesthetics and Astronomy.
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NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: Andromeda
Publications with words: Andromeda
See also: