drumbo
09-02-06, 12:40 PM
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0609/m66_eso_c33.jpg (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0609/m66_eso_f.jpg) Dusty Spiral M66
Credit: M. Neeser (Univ.-Sternwarte Munchen (http://www.usm.uni-muenchen.de/)), P. Barthel (Kapteyn Astron. Institute (http://www.rug.nl/ sterrenkunde/?lang=en)), H. Heyer, H. Boffin (ESO), ESO (http://www.eso.org/)
Explanation: When morning twilight came to the Paranal Observatory (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050817.html) in Chile, astronomers Mark Neeser and Peter Barthel interrupted their search for faint (http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0607667) quasars (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020309.html), billions of light-years away. And just for a moment, they used Very Large Telescopes (http://www.eso.org/outreach/ut1fl/) at the European Southern Observatory to appreciate the beauty of the nearby Universe. One result was this stunning view (http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2003/ phot-33-03.html) of beautiful spiral galaxy M66, a mere 35 million light-years away. About 100 thousand light-years across with striking dust lanes and bright star clusters along sweeping spiral arms, M66 (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040407.html) is well known to astronomers as a member of the Leo Triplet (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060309.html) of galaxies. Gravitational interactions with its neighborhood galaxies (http://www.npaci.edu/online/v4.9/galaxies2.html) have likely influenced the shape of dusty spiral M66.
Source (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060902.html)
Credit: M. Neeser (Univ.-Sternwarte Munchen (http://www.usm.uni-muenchen.de/)), P. Barthel (Kapteyn Astron. Institute (http://www.rug.nl/ sterrenkunde/?lang=en)), H. Heyer, H. Boffin (ESO), ESO (http://www.eso.org/)
Explanation: When morning twilight came to the Paranal Observatory (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050817.html) in Chile, astronomers Mark Neeser and Peter Barthel interrupted their search for faint (http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0607667) quasars (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap020309.html), billions of light-years away. And just for a moment, they used Very Large Telescopes (http://www.eso.org/outreach/ut1fl/) at the European Southern Observatory to appreciate the beauty of the nearby Universe. One result was this stunning view (http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2003/ phot-33-03.html) of beautiful spiral galaxy M66, a mere 35 million light-years away. About 100 thousand light-years across with striking dust lanes and bright star clusters along sweeping spiral arms, M66 (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap040407.html) is well known to astronomers as a member of the Leo Triplet (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060309.html) of galaxies. Gravitational interactions with its neighborhood galaxies (http://www.npaci.edu/online/v4.9/galaxies2.html) have likely influenced the shape of dusty spiral M66.
Source (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap060902.html)