Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 October 28 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Mirach's Ghost Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]John Chumack Explanation: [5]As far as ghosts go, Mirach's Ghost isn't really that [6]scary. Mirach's Ghost is just a faint, fuzzy galaxy, well known to astronomers, that happens to be seen nearly along the line-of-sight to [7]Mirach, a bright star. [8]Centered in this star field, Mirach is also called Beta Andromedae. About 200 light-years distant, Mirach is a [9]red giant star, cooler than the Sun but much larger and so intrinsically much brighter than our parent star. In most telescopic views, glare and [10]diffraction spikes tend to hide things that lie near Mirach and make the faint, fuzzy galaxy look like a ghostly internal reflection of the almost overwhelming starlight. Still, appearing in [11]this sharp image just above and to the right of Mirach, Mirach's Ghost is cataloged as galaxy [12]NGC 404 and is estimated to be some 10 million light-years away. Tomorrow's picture: just the dust __________________________________________________________________ [13]< | [14]Archive | [15]Submissions | [16]Index | [17]Search | [18]Calendar | [19]RSS | [20]Education | [21]About APOD | [22]Discuss | [23]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [24]Robert Nemiroff ([25]MTU) & [26]Jerry Bonnell ([27]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [28]Specific rights apply. [29]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [30]ASD at [31]NASA / [32]GSFC & [33]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2110/Mirach_NGC404ChumackHRweb.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. http://www.galacticimages.com/blog/ 5. https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Old_Astronomer 6. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/new-nasa-posters-feature-cosmic-frights-for-halloween 7. http://stars.astro.illinois.edu/Sow/mirach.html 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap150926.html 9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_giant 10. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diffraction_spike 11. https://www.galacticimages.com/mirach-beta-andromedae-ngc-404-mirachs-ghost/ 12. http://arxiv.org/abs/1003.4985 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211027.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 17. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 22. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=211028 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap211029.html 24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 27. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 29. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 30. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/ 32. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 33. http://www.mtu.edu/