                         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.

                                2019 February 1
                                      [2]
                            Twin Galaxies in Virgo
    Image Credit & Copyright [3] : CHART32 Team [4] , Processing - Johannes
                                 Schedler [5]

Explanation: Spiral galaxy pair NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 share this sharp cosmic
vista [6]  with lonely elliptical galaxy NGC 4564. All are members of the
large Virgo Galaxy Cluster [7] . With their classic spiral arms, dust lanes,
and star clusters, the eye-catching spiral pair is also known as the Butterfly
Galaxies or the Siamese Twins. Very close together, the galaxy twins don't
seem to be too distorted by gravitational tides. Their giant molecular clouds
are known to be colliding [8]  though and are likely fueling the formation of
massive star clusters. The galaxy twins are about 52 million light-years
distant [9] , while their bright cores appear separated by about 20,000
light-years. Of course, the spiky foreground stars lie within our own Milky
Way.

                      Tomorrow's picture: the boogeyman

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Site notes:
  [1] archivepix.html
  [2] image/1902/NGC4567_70chart32.jpg
  [3] lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  [4] http://chart32.de/index.php/group
  [5] http://panther-observatory.com/
  [6] http://www.chart32.de/index.php/component/k2/item/296
  [7] ap150804.html
  [8] https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/?#abs/2018ApJ...860L..14K
  [9] https://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/features/cosmic/ local_supercluster.html
  [10] ap190131.html
  [11] archivepix.html
  [12] lib/apsubmit2015.html
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  [21] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  [22] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  [23] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
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