Todays pic is another oldish but good one, it's a very different looking galaxy from what most people expect a galactic structure to be like.
A Wheel within a Wheel
A nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels about the yellow nucleus of an unusual galaxy known as Hoag's Object. This image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures a face-on view of the galaxy's ring of stars, revealing more detail than any existing photo of this object. The entire galaxy is about 120,000 light-years wide, which is slightly larger than our Milky Way Galaxy. The blue ring, which is dominated by clusters of young, massive stars, contrasts sharply with the yellow nucleus of mostly older stars. What appears to be a "gap" separating the two stellar populations may actually contain some star clusters that are almost too faint to see. Curiously, an object that bears an uncanny resemblance to Hoag's Object can be seen in the gap at the one o'clock position. The object is probably a background ring galaxy.
Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Rather than posting a single larger image, the page that this article is taken from can be found here, this page contains links to several larger images.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
15th Mar 03
14th Mar 03
13th Mar 03
11th Mar 03
09th Mar 03
08th Mar 03
07th Mar 03
A Wheel within a Wheel
A nearly perfect ring of hot, blue stars pinwheels about the yellow nucleus of an unusual galaxy known as Hoag's Object. This image from NASA's Hubble Space Telescope captures a face-on view of the galaxy's ring of stars, revealing more detail than any existing photo of this object. The entire galaxy is about 120,000 light-years wide, which is slightly larger than our Milky Way Galaxy. The blue ring, which is dominated by clusters of young, massive stars, contrasts sharply with the yellow nucleus of mostly older stars. What appears to be a "gap" separating the two stellar populations may actually contain some star clusters that are almost too faint to see. Curiously, an object that bears an uncanny resemblance to Hoag's Object can be seen in the gap at the one o'clock position. The object is probably a background ring galaxy.
Image Credit: NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)
Rather than posting a single larger image, the page that this article is taken from can be found here, this page contains links to several larger images.
Previous Pic Of The Day posts
15th Mar 03
14th Mar 03
13th Mar 03
11th Mar 03
09th Mar 03
08th Mar 03
07th Mar 03
