Gorgeous new picture of galaxy NGC 4013

[jgraz]

I don't usually post astronomy pics, but this one is especially beautiful.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap080207.html

[NMDemDist2]

1. lovely!! is that a messier object? n/t

[jgraz]

2. It's a mag 19.2 object, so I don't think Messier was able to see it.

[freethought]

3. Is that me or does it look like

this galaxy has a kind of tail whipping around behind it?
IT TRUELY IS ONE FANTASTIC PHOTO!!

[jgraz]

4. It's a galaxy with a handle

Or maybe one big ear.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

9. That "tail" is millions of stars.

It's full of stars.

[tridim]

10. Probably a remnant of an old galaxy to galaxy collision

It's cool that it looks like the infinity symbol.

I often wonder what our sky would look like if Earth were orbiting a star in a cluster outside of the Milky Way proper. You could see the center and the spiral arms every night! I doubt there would be anything more beautiful.

[krispos42]

5. Is that a supernova going off in the galaxy?

And that is a beautiful picture, no doubt about that. Thank you for posting.

[jgraz]

7. No, just a local star in the foreground

This is what a supernova looks like.



Note the white bars pointing to it in the second picture.

[YankeyMCC]

6. Beautiful and fascinating

imagine a star in that figure 8 like halo with a habitable planet with self-aware intelligent beings...what would their sky look like...how would that influence how they developed their own cosmology?

Thanks for posting this.

[Orsino]

8. I'll be in my bunk. n/t

[YankeyMCC]

12. Best line ever

in a SF TV show.

lol

[Swede]

11. Thanks for pic.

Beautiful

[and-justice-for-all]

13. When do we leave? nt

[gristy]

14. drives me crazy when someone adds those X's

What's the point?

[TechBear_Seattle]

15. Those Xs are an artifact of the photo, no one added them

To take the photo of the distant galaxy, the camera has to be open for a long time. Stars that are closer and brighter get over exposed, which is where the crosses come from. You see the exact same effect if you take a flash picture near a reflective object such as a mirror, window or bit of polished metal.

[gristy]

16. Not buying it

That optical artifact is just far too "pretty" to be a defect that couldn't be reduced or removed, or more likely, to not be something that was simply added. Lens astigmatism is apparently the root cause of a point of light having a cross halo. But for just four specific points of light to produce such a huge halo, and none of the others? Forget it.

http://www.astrosurf.com/luxorion/report-aberrations3.htm

[Manifestor_of_Light]

17. Looks a lot like the Sombrero Galaxy in Virgo.

Beautiful.


New detailed picture of the Sombrero Galaxy (M. 104):

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080308.html