|
Credit & Copyright: Nicolas Rolland,
Telescope.Live
Explanation:
This colorful telescopic
field
of view features a trio of interacting galaxies almost 90 million
light-years away, toward the
constellation Virgo.
On the right two
spiky,
foreground Milky Way stars echo the extragalactic hues,
a reminder that stars in our own galaxy are like those in distant
island universes.
With sweeping spiral arms and obscuring dust lanes,
the dominant member of the trio,
NGC 5566, is enormous, about 150,000 light-years across.
Just above it lies smaller, bluish NGC 5569.
Near center a third galaxy, NGC 5560,
is apparently
stretched and distorted by its interaction with massive NGC 5566.
The trio is also included in Halton Arp's 1966
Atlas
of Peculiar Galaxies as Arp 286.
Of course, such
cosmic
interactions
are now appreciated as part of the
evolution of
galaxies.
|
January February March April May June July August September October November December |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
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: interacting galaxies
Publications with words: interacting galaxies
See also: