2013 January 16
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.
Image Credit: Hubble Legacy Archive, ESA, NASA; Processing - Martin Pugh
Explanation:
A gorgeous spiral galaxy some 100 million light-years distant,
NGC 1309 lies on the banks of the constellation
of the River (Eridanus).
NGC 1309 spans about 30,000 light-years, making it about one third the size
of our larger Milky Way galaxy.
Bluish clusters of young stars and
dust lanes are seen to trace out
NGC 1309's spiral arms as they wind around an older yellowish star
population at its core.
Not just another pretty face-on
spiral galaxy, observations of
NGC 1309's recent supernova and
Cepheid variable stars contribute to the
calibration of
the expansion of the Universe.
Still, after you get over this beautiful galaxy's
grand design,
check out
the array of more distant background galaxies also recorded
in the above, sharp, reprocessed,
Hubble Space Telescope view.
