Astronomy Picture of the Day
Posted By admin On March 18, 2011 @ 7:15 pm In Photo Essays | Comments Disabled
[1]- Click for larger image
NGC 3621: Far Beyond the Local Group
Credit & Copyright [2]: Robert Gendler [3]
Explanation: Far beyond [4] the local group [5] of galaxies lies NGC 3621 [6], some 22 million light-years away. Found in the multi-headed southern constellation Hydra [7], the winding spiral arms of this gorgeous island universe [8] are loaded with luminous young star clusters and dark dust lanes. Still, for earthbound astronomers NGC 3621 is not just another [9] pretty face-on spiral galaxy [10]. Some of its brighter stars [11] have been used as standard candles [12] to establish [13] important estimates of extragalactic distances [14] and the scale of the Universe [15]. This beautiful image of NGC 3621 [16] traces the loose spiral arms far from the galaxy’s brighter central regions that span some 100,000 light-years. Spiky foreground stars in our own Milky Way Galaxy and even more distant background galaxies are scattered across the colorful skyscape.
Visit the NASA/JPL website to view more Astronomy Pictures of the Day [17]
Article printed from Recorder Online: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com
URL to article: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/2011/03/18/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-38/
URLs in this post:
[1] Image: http://www.berthoudrecorder.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/NGC3621Lgendler.jpg
[2] Copyright: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
[3] Robert Gendler: http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/
[4] Far beyond: http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0012372
[5] local group: http://www.atlasoftheuniverse.com/localgr.html
[6] NGC 3621: http://www.seds.org/~spider/ngc/ngc.cgi?3621
[7] Hydra: http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/hya/index.html
[8] island universe: http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March02/Gordon/Gordon2.html
[9] another: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap011004.html
[10] galaxy: http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap010427.html
[11] brighter stars: http://www.ipac.caltech.edu/H0kp/n3621/n3621.html
[12] standard candles: http://csep10.phys.utk.edu/astr162/lect/cosmology/cosmicd.html
[13] establish: http://oposite.stsci.edu/pubinfo/PR/1999/19/background.html
[14] distances: http://casswww.ucsd.edu/public/tutorial/Distances.html
[15] scale of the Universe: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/debate/debate96.html
[16] beautiful image of NGC 3621: http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/NGC3621.html
[17] Astronomy Pictures of the Day: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/
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