Astronomy Picture of the Day

   [1]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.

                                2022 April 14
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                                 Messier 96
        Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Mark Hanson and [5]Mike Selby

   Explanation: Spiral arms seem to swirl around the core of [6]Messier 96
   in this [7]colorful, detailed portrait of a beautiful [8]island
   universe. Of course [9]M96 is a spiral galaxy, and counting the faint
   arms extending beyond the brighter central region it spans 100 thousand
   light-years or so. That's about the size of our own Milky Way. M96 is
   known to be 38 million light-years distant, a dominant member of the
   [10]Leo I galaxy group. Background galaxies and smaller Leo I group
   members can be found by examining the picture. The most intriguing one
   is itself a spiral galaxy seen [11]nearly edge on behind the outer
   spiral arm near the 1 o'clock position from center. Its bright central
   bulge cut by its own dark dust clouds, the edge-on background spiral
   appears to be about 1/5 the size of M96. If that background galaxy is
   similar in actual size to M96, then it would be about 5 times
   [12]farther away.

                  Tomorrow's picture: the red planet rocks
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    Authors & editors: [24]Robert Nemiroff ([25]MTU) & [26]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([27]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [28]Specific rights apply.
              [29]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [30]ASD at [31]NASA / [32]GSFC
                           & [33]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2204/M_96_LRGB_CDK_1000_8April2022HansonSelbyFinal1024.jpg
   3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
   4. https://www.hansonastronomy.com/
   5. https://www.facebook.com/masterdarksastro/
   6. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-96
   7. https://www.hansonastronomy.com/m96-chile
   8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap200430.html
   9. https://www.messier.seds.org/m/m096.html
  10. https://skyandtelescope.org/observing/its-spring-time-to-visit-the-bright-galaxies-of-leo-i/
  11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210517.html
  12. http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/scale.html
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220413.html
  14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  17. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  22. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=220414
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220415.html
  24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  27. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  29. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  30. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  31. https://www.nasa.gov/
  32. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  33. http://www.mtu.edu/