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. 2024 June 13 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Messier 66 Close Up Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin and Robert Gendler Explanation: Big, beautiful [6]spiral galaxy Messier 66 lies a mere 35 million light-years away. The [7]gorgeous island universe is about 100 thousand light-years across, similar in size to the Milky Way. This [8]Hubble Space Telescope close-up view spans a region about 30,000 light-years wide around the galactic core. It shows the galaxy's disk dramatically inclined to our line-of-sight. Surrounding its bright core, the likely home of a supermassive black hole, obscuring dust lanes and young, blue star clusters sweep [9]along spiral arms dotted with the tell-tale glow of pinkish star forming regions. Messier 66, also known as NGC 3627, is the brightest of the three galaxies in the gravitationally interacting [10]Leo Triplet. Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space __________________________________________________________________ [11]< | [12]Archive | [13]Submissions | [14]Index | [15]Search | [16]Calendar | [17]RSS | [18]Education | [19]About APOD | [20]Discuss | [21]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [22]Robert Nemiroff ([23]MTU) & [24]Jerry Bonnell ([25]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [26]Specific rights apply. [27]NASA Web Privacy, [28]Accessibility Notices A service of: [29]ASD at [30]NASA / [31]GSFC, [32]NASA Science Activation & [33]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2406/heic1006a_M66.jpg 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. https://www.esa.int/ 5. https://hubblesite.org/images/hubble-heritage 6. https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-66 7. https://esahubble.org/images/heic1006a/ 8. https://science.nasa.gov/missions/hubble/hubble-celebrates-the-15th-anniversary-of-servicing-mission-4/ 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap230829.html 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240321.html 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240612.html 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 15. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 20. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=240613 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240514.html 22. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 23. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 24. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 25. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 27. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 28. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/ 29. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 30. https://www.nasa.gov/ 31. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 32. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 33. http://www.mtu.edu/