Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.
2015 September 21
Spiral Galaxy M96 from Hubble
Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA and the LEGUS Team; Acknowledgement: R. Gendler
Explanation: Dust lanes seem to swirl around the core of Messier 96 in this
colorful, detailed portrait of the center of a beautiful
island universe. Of course M96 is a
spiral galaxy, and counting the faint arms extending
beyond the brighter central region, it spans 100 thousand light-years or so, making it about the size of our own
Milky Way. M96, also known as
NGC 3368, is known to be about 35 million light-years distant and a dominant member of the
Leo I galaxy group. The
featured image was taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope. The reason for
M96's asymmetry is unclear -- it could have arisen from gravitational interactions with other Leo I
group galaxies, but the lack of an intra-group diffuse glow seems to indicate
few recent interactions. Galaxies far in the background can be found by
examining the edges of the picture.
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