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Affichage des articles dont le libellé est ASTRONOMY - M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est ASTRONOMY - M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy. Afficher tous les articles

02/05/2024

ASTRONOMY - M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy

 2024 May 2

See Explanation.  Clicking on the picture will download
 the highest resolution version available.

M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy
Image Credit & Copyright: Drew Evans

Explanation: Majestic on a truly cosmic scale, M100 is appropriately known as a grand design spiral galaxy. The large galaxy of over 100 billion stars has well-defined spiral arms, similar to our own Milky Way. One of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, M100, also known as NGC 4321 is 56 million light-years distant toward the well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. In this telescopic image, the face-on grand design spiral shares a nearly 1 degree wide field-of-view with slightly less conspicuous edge-on spiral NGC 4312 (at upper right). The 21 hour long equivalent exposure from a dark sky site near Flagstaff, Arizona, planet Earth, reveals M100's bright blue star clusters and intricate winding dust lanes which are hallmarks of this class of galaxies. Measurements of variable stars in M100 have played an important role in determining the size and age of the Universe.

09/04/2023

ASTRONOMY - M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy

 2023 April 8

A spiral galaxy is shown with spiral arms dominated by blue stars
and with a bright central swirl that itself looks like a spiral galaxy.
Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy
Image Credit: NASAESAHubble; Processing: Judy Schmidt

Explanation: Majestic on a truly cosmic scale, M100 is appropriately known as a grand design spiral galaxy. It is a large galaxy of over 100 billion stars with well-defined spiral arms that is similar to our own Milky Way Galaxy. One of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster of galaxies, M100 (alias NGC 4321) is 56 million light-years distant toward the constellation of Berenice's Hair (Coma Berenices). This Hubble Space Telescope image of M100 was taken with the Wide Field Camera 3 and accentuates bright blue star clusters and intricate winding dust lanes which are hallmarks of this class of galaxies. Studies of variable stars in M100 have played an important role in determining the size and age of the Universe.

ASTRONOMY - NGC 206 and the Star Clouds of Andromeda

 2024 November 28 NGC 206 and the Star Clouds of Andromeda Image Credit &  Copyright :  Roberto Marinoni Explanation:  The large stellar...