                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

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                                2023 April 13

                      NGC 2419: Intergalactic Wanderer
              Image Credit: ESA/Hubble, NASA, S. Larsen et al.

   Explanation: Stars of the globular cluster NGC 2419 are packed into
   this Hubble Space Telescope field of view toward the mostly stealthy
   constellation Lynx. The two brighter spiky stars near the edge of the
   frame are within our own galaxy. NGC 2419 itself is remote though, some
   300,000 light-years away. In comparison, the Milky Way's satellite
   galaxy, the Large Magellanic Cloud, is only about 160,000 light-years
   distant. Roughly similar to other large globular star clusters like
   Omega Centauri, NGC 2419 is intrinsically bright, but appears faint
   because it is so far away. Its extreme distance makes it difficult to
   study and compare its properties with other globular clusters that roam
   the halo of our Milky Way galaxy. Sometimes called "the Intergalactic
   Wanderer", NGC 2419 really does seem to have come from beyond the Milky
   Way. Measurements of the cluster's motion through space suggest it once
   belonged to the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy, another small
   satellite galaxy being disrupted by repeated encounters with the much
   larger Milky Way.

                     Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.
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