                        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 July 22

                      Spiral Galaxy M74: A Sharper View
   Image Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, STScI; Processing Copyright: Robert Eder

   Explanation: Beautiful spiral galaxy Messier 74 (also known as NGC 628)
   lies some 32 million light-years away toward the constellation Pisces.
   An island universe of about 100 billion stars with two prominent spiral
   arms, M74 has long been admired by astronomers as a perfect example of
   a grand-design spiral galaxy. M74's central region is brought into a
   stunning, sharp focus in this recently processed image using publicly
   available data from the James Webb Space Telescope. The colorized
   combination of image data sets is from two of Webb's instruments NIRcam
   and MIRI, operating at near- and mid-infrared wavelengths. It reveals
   cooler stars and dusty structures in the grand-design spiral galaxy
   only hinted at in previous space-based views.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

