Combining data from several observatories, astronomers have now labeled NGC 6872 as the largest known spiral galaxy. The barred spiral galaxy was known to be huge, but new data indicates that it's the largest we've ever seen, some 522,000 light-years across, five times larger than our Milky Way. Its centra... |
11 January 2013
05:06 GMT |
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Scientists sometimes go wild when naming things, but most of the time they stick to the plain and simple. Case in point, galaxy types.
Spiral galaxies are, well, spirals, elliptical galaxies are elliptical, lenticular galaxies look like a lens. So you can imagine astronomers were quite surprised to find spiral arms ... |
25 October 2012
14:41 GMT |
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Astronomers operating the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have recently released this amazing new image of the spiral galaxy NGC 4643, which lies around 70 million light-years away from Earth, in the constellation Coma Berenices.
The object is seen directly edge-on, revealing a slightly distorted structure. Experts ... |
24 September 2012
03:44 GMT |
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Astronomers working with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captured a breathtaking view of the galaxy NGC 7090, which lies edge-on as seen from Earth. The photo reveals its central bulge, as well as some of its largest gas and dust concentrations (darker areas).
The intricate pattern of pinkish red regions reveals... |
15 September 2012
06:13 GMT |
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In a study conducted using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, researchers in the United States have discovered that the Milky Way will collide with its neighbor, M31 (the Andromeda Galaxy), in a head-on event.
Many astronomers believed that the two would only give each other a glancing blow, but the latest data o... |
1 June 2012
03:08 GMT |
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Using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, a team of astronomers was recently able to capture an impressive view of the edge-on, spiral galaxy NGC 891. The cosmic structure is located in the Andromeda Constellation, around 30 million light-years away from Earth.
The photo was collected using the wide-field Advanced ... |
19 May 2012
04:28 GMT |
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The Coma Cluster, or Abell 1656, is a spherical galactic cluster about 20 million light years across located at about 300 million light years towards the north pole of the Milky Way, meaning it is relatively easy to view from Earth since the dust and gas plane of the galaxy doesn't interfere. The cluster contain... |
10 June 2008
11:21 GMT |
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Located more than 320 million light years away, in the Eridanus constellation, the galaxy NGC 1132 represents a class of giant elliptical galaxies, surrounded by a group of dwarf galaxies named by astronomers, the 'fossil group.' The shear size of the elliptical galaxy in relation to its much smaller compa... |
5 February 2008
10:49 GMT |
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