                APOD: 2017 November 30 - M33: Triangulum Galaxy

                         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.

                               2017 November 30
                                      [2]
                            M33: Triangulum Galaxy
                Image Credit & Copyright [3] : Peter Nagy [4]

Explanation: The small, northern constellation Triangulum [5] harbors this
magnificent face-on spiral galaxy, M33. Its popular names include the Pinwheel
Galaxy or just the Triangulum Galaxy [6] . M33 is over 50,000 light-years in
diameter, third largest in the Local Group [7]  of galaxies after the
Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and our own Milky Way. About 3 million light-years
from the Milky Way, M33 is itself thought to be a satellite of the Andromeda
Galaxy and astronomers [8] in these two galaxies would likely have spectacular
views of each other's grand spiral star systems. As for [9]  the view from
planet Earth, this sharp composite image [10]  nicely shows off M33's blue
star clusters and pinkish star forming [11]  regions along the galaxy's
loosely wound spiral arms. In fact, the cavernous NGC 604 [12]  is the
brightest star forming region, seen here at about the 7 o'clock position from
the galaxy center. Like M31, M33's population of well-measured variable stars
have helped make this nearby spiral a cosmic yardstick for establishing [13]
the distance scale [14]  of the Universe.

                   Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space [15]

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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1711/M33Nagy_tamed.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] https://peternagy.smugmug.com/
  [5] http://www.hawastsoc.org/deepsky/tri/index.html
  [6] http://messier.seds.org/m/m033.html
  [7] http://atlasoftheuniverse.com/localgr.html
  [8] http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph?papernum=0506609
  [9] ap130926.html
  [10] https://peternagy.smugmug.com/Telescopes/Galaxies/i-fd6ndvX/A
  [11] ap091017.html
  [12] http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/ 2003/30/
  [13] http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/ bib_query?1926ApJ....63..236H
  [14] http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/diamond_jubilee/ debate96.html
  [15] ap171201.html
  [16] ap171129.html
  [17] archivepix.html
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