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. 2022 January 14 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. NGC 1566: The Spanish Dancer Spiral Galaxy Image Credit & [3]Copyright: [4]Mark Hanson and [5]Mike Selby Explanation: [6]An island universe of billions of stars, NGC 1566 lies about 60 million light-years away in the southern constellation [7]Dorado. Popularly known as the Spanish Dancer galaxy, it's seen face-on from our [8]Milky Way perspective. A gorgeous grand design spiral, this galaxy's two graceful spiral arms span over 100,000 light-years, traced by bright [9]blue star clusters, pinkish starforming regions, and swirling [10]cosmic dust lanes. [11]NGC 1566's flaring center makes the spiral one of the closest and brightest [12]Seyfert galaxies. It likely houses a central [13]supermassive black hole wreaking havoc on [14]surrounding stars, gas, and dust. In this sharp southern galaxy portrait, the spiky stars lie well within the Milky Way. Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend __________________________________________________________________ [15]< | [16]Archive | [17]Submissions | [18]Index | [19]Search | [20]Calendar | [21]RSS | [22]Education | [23]About APOD | [24]Discuss | [25]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [26]Robert Nemiroff ([27]MTU) & [28]Jerry Bonnell ([29]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [30]Specific rights apply. [31]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [32]ASD at [33]NASA / [34]GSFC & [35]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2201/NGC1566LRGBHa-Hanson-SelbyFinal2048.jpg 3. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 4. https://www.hansonastronomy.com/ 5. https://www.facebook.com/masterdarksastro/ 6. http://nedwww.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/March02/Gordon/Gordon2.html 7. https://arxiv.org/abs/2009.14731 8. https://esahubble.org/images/potw1422a/ 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap990402.html 10. https://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/image/sig05-013-ngc-1566 11. http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2019MNRAS.483L..88P 12. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seyfert_galaxy 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap181203.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190427.html 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220113.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 19. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 24. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=220114 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220115.html 26. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 27. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 28. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 29. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 31. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 32. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 33. https://www.nasa.gov/ 34. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 35. http://www.mtu.edu/