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NASA APOD

NASA APOD

NASA APOD

NASA APOD

NASA APOD

NASA APOD · Anglo-Australian Telescope Board Explanation: Almost unknown to casual observers in the northern hemisphere, the southern sky contains two diffuse wonders known as the Magellanic Clouds. The Magellanic Clouds are small irregular galaxies orbiting our own larger Milky Way spiral galaxy. The Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), pictured here, is about 250,000 light years away and contains a preponderance of young, hot, blue stars indicating it has undergone a recent period of star formation. There is evidence that the SMC is actually two galaxies superposed to appear as one. The bright blob near the right hand edge of the frame is a globular cluster near the outskirts of the Milky Way. Tomorrow's picture: GL 105C: The Coolest Star? | Archive | Glossary | Education | About APOD | Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD) is created and edited in 1995 by Robert Nemiroff (GMU) and Jerry Bonnell (USRA). Specific rights may apply. Correspondence about APOD should be addressed to nemiroff@grossc.gsfc.nasa.gov or bonnell@grossc.gsfc.nasa.gov. A service of the Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics (LHEA) at NASA/ GSFC Technical Rep: Sherri Calvo, 301-286-5668, sherri.calvo@gsfc.nasa.gov Questions/Comments/Feedback to: feedback@athena.gsfc.nasa.gov General astronomy pointers are available.

NASA APOD · Anglo-Australian Telescope Board Explanation: Magellan and his crew had plenty of time to study the southern sky during their famous voyage around the world. As a result, two fuzzy cloud like objects, nestled among the southern constellations of Doradus and Tucana are now known as the Clouds of Magellan. The Magellanic Clouds are small irregular galaxies, satellites of our larger Milky Way spiral galaxy. The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) pictured above is the closest galaxy to our own Milky Way, at a distance of about 180,000 light years. The Magellanic Clouds are joined to the Milky Way by a stream of cold hydrogen gas whose origin is still controversial. An unusual effect called gravitational lensing has recently been detected in a few LMC stars, and there is hope this could tell us important information about the true composition of our universe. Tomorrow's picture: The Small Cloud of Magellan | Archive | Glossary | Education | About APOD | Astronomy Picture of the Day (TM) is created and copyrighted in 1995 by Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell who are solely responsible for its content.

NASA APOD · Royal Observatory Edinburgh, Anglo-Australian Observatory, and AURA Explanation: Almost every object in the above photograph is a galaxy. The Coma Cluster of galaxies pictured is a dense cluster containing many thousands of galaxies. Many of these galaxies contain as many stars as our own Milky Way Galaxy. Although nearby when compared to most other clusters, light from the Coma Cluster still takes hundreds of millions of years to reach us. In fact, the Coma Cluster is so big it takes light millions of years just to go from one side to the other! This picture was created at the WWW site Skyview, a "virtual observatory" where it is possible to view any part of the sky in wavelengths from radio to gamma-ray. Tomorrow's picture: The Large Cloud of Magellan | Archive | Glossary | Education | About APOD | Astronomy Picture of the Day (TM) is created and copyrighted in 1995 by Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell who are solely responsible for its content.

NASA APOD

NASA APOD

NASA APOD · Anglo-Australian Telescope Board Explanation: Elliptical galaxy M87 is a type of galaxy that looks much different than our own Milky Way Galaxy. But even for an elliptical galaxy M87 is peculiar. M87 is much bigger than an average galaxy, appears at the center of a whole cluster of galaxies known as the Virgo Cluster, and shows a very high number of globular clusters. These globular clusters are visible as faint spots surrounding the bright center of M87. In general, elliptical galaxies contain similar numbers of stars as spiral galaxies, but are ellipsoidal in shape (spirals are mostly flat), have no spiral structure, and little gas and dust. This picture is number sixty on a publicly posted list of images from the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). Tomorrow's picture: The Far Side | Archive | Glossary | Education | About APOD | Astronomy Picture of the Day (TM) is created and copyrighted in 1995 by Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell who are solely responsible for its content.

NASA APOD · Anglo-Australian Telescope Board Explanation: Long winding spiral arms are clearly evident on this spectacular picture of the spiral galaxy M83. The blue color of the spiral arms is caused by the relatively large fraction of young blue stars there. Dark dust lanes are mixed in with the stars and trace the spiral structure of the galaxy. This galaxy contains many billions of stars, and its light took many millions of years to reach us. Our own Milky Way Galaxy would appear similar to this if viewed from M83! This picture is number eight on a publicly posted list of images from the Anglo-Australian Telescope (AAT). Tomorrow's picture: Elliptical Galaxy M87 | Archive | Glossary | Education | About APOD | Astronomy Picture of the Day (TM) is created and copyrighted in 1995 by Robert Nemiroff and Jerry Bonnell who are solely responsible for its content.

NASA APOD

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NASA APOD