Astronomy Picture of the Day

                         Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our
 fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a
                           professional astronomer.

                                2018 December 6
                                      [2]
                        Cetus Galaxies and Supernova
           Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Massimiliano Veschini [4]

Explanation: Large spiral galaxy NGC 1055 at top left joins spiral Messier 77
(bottom right) in this cosmic view [5] toward the aquatic constellation Cetus
[6] . The narrowed, dusty appearance of edge-on spiral NGC 1055 [7] contrasts
nicely with the face-on view of M77's bright nucleus and spiral arms. Both
over 100,000 light-years across, the pair are dominant members of a small
galaxy group about 60 million light-years away. At that estimated distance,
M77 is one [8]  of the most remote objects in Charles Messier's catalog [9] ,
and is separated from fellow island universe NGC 1055 by at least 500,000
light-years. The field of view is about the size of the full Moon on the sky
[10]  and includes colorful foreground Milky Way stars along with more distant
background galaxies. Taken on November 28, the sharp image also includes newly
discovered supernova SN2018ivc [11] , its location indicated in the arms of
M77. The light from the explosion of one of M77's massive stars was discovered
by telescopes on planet Earth [12]  only a few days earlier on November 24.

                      Tomorrow's picture: close encounter

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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1812/M77_SN2018ivc_LRGB_v019veschini2048.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] mailto:Massimiliano [dot] Veschini [at] gmail [dot] com
  [5] https://www.astrobin.com/378911/G/?nc=user
  [6] http://hawastsoc.org/deepsky/cet/index.html
  [7] ap100424.html
  [8] https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/mes...
  [9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ List_of_Messier_objects#Messier_objects
  [10] http://www.cosmicvoyage.net/m77hop.html
  [11] https://www.skyandtelescope.com/observing/
supernova-discovered-in-the-bright-galaxy-m77/
  [12] http://www.rochesterastronomy.org/sn2018/sn20...
  [13] ap181205.html
  [14] archivepix.html
  [15] lib/apsubmit2015.html
  [16] lib/aptree.html
  [17] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apo...
  [18] calendar/allyears.html
  [19] /apod.rss
  [20] lib/edlinks.html
  [21] lib/about_apod.html
  [22] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?dat...
  [23] ap181207.html
  [24] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [25] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [26] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnel...
  [27] http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  [28] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [29] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Priv...
  [30] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  [31] https://www.nasa.gov/
  [32] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  [33] http://www.mtu.edu/

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