                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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 February 7

                        NGC 4651: The Umbrella Galaxy
      Image Credit & Copyright: CFHT, Coelum, MegaCam, J.-C. Cuillandre
                       (CFHT) & G. A. Anselmi (Coelum)

   Explanation: It's raining stars. What appears to be a giant cosmic
   umbrella is now known to be a tidal stream of stars stripped from a
   small satellite galaxy. The main galaxy, spiral galaxy NGC 4651, is
   about the size of our Milky Way, while its stellar parasol appears to
   extend some 100 thousand light-years above this galaxy's bright disk. A
   small galaxy was likely torn apart by repeated encounters as it swept
   back and forth on eccentric orbits through NGC 4651. The remaining
   stars will surely fall back and become part of a combined larger galaxy
   over the next few million years. The featured image was captured by the
   Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope (CFHT) in Hawaii, USA. The Umbrella
   Galaxy lies about 50 million light-years distant toward the
   well-groomed northern constellation Coma Berenices.

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