                        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.

                                2023 June 23

                           Giant Galaxies in Pavo
         Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby, Observatorio El Sauce

   Explanation: Over 500,000 light years across, NGC 6872 (top right) is a
   truly enormous barred spiral galaxy, at least 5 times the size of our
   own very large Milky Way. The appearance of this giant galaxy's
   distorted and stretched out spiral arms suggests the magnificent wings
   of a giant bird. Of course its popular moniker is the Condor galaxy. It
   lies about 200 million light-years distant toward the southern
   constellation Pavo, the Peacock. Lined with star-forming regions, the
   distorted spiral arms are due to NGC 6872's gravitational interaction
   with the nearby smaller galaxy IC 4970, seen just above the giant
   galaxy's core. The Pavo galaxy group's dominant giant elliptical
   galaxy, NGC 6876 is below and left of the soaring Condor galaxy.

                      Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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