Spiral galaxy NGC 3169 looks to be unraveling like a ball of cosmic yarn.
It lies some 70 million light-years away, south of bright star Regulus toward the faint constellation Sextans. Wound up spiral arms are pulled out into sweeping tidal tails as NGC 3169 (left) and neighboring NGC 3166 interact gravitationally. Eventually the galaxies will merge into one, a common fate even for bright galaxies in the local universe. Drawn out stellar arcs and plumes are clear indications of the ongoing gravitational interactions across the deep and colorful galaxy group photo. The telescopic frame spans about 20 arc minutes or about 400,000 light-years at the group's estimated distance, and includes smaller, bluish NGC 3165 to the right. NGC 3169 is also known to shine across the spectrum from radio to X-rays, harboring an active galactic nucleus that is the site of a supermassive black hole.
Astronomy.co.uk Star Naming Service
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Th Sky Tonight - May 2025
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The Pinwheel Galaxy -NASA
The first Full Moon of 2022, known as the Wolf Moon, will occur tonight! Throughout cold January nights, the howling of wolves could be heard around villages in both Europe and America, so the January Full Moon became widely known as the Wolf Moon.
The exact time of the Full Wolf Moon is January 17, 2022, 23:48 GMT
The Lagoon Nebula - Hubble
This is a small section of the Cygnus supernova blast wave which appears as a delicate streak of light.
Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, W. Blair; acknowledgment: Leo Shatz
An exploding star !
Hubble
The station crew sees 16 sunrises a day, and they officially started 2022 at 12am GMT.
The Snow Angel Nebula - Hubble
Crescent Earth
The Earth as seen from the Moon on the Command Module of Apollo17 on December 16, 1972.
Credit: @NASA (image #AS17-152-23274); Processing: @JPMajor
Dolphin head nebula located near the center of the constellation Canis Major
DEM L249, located in the Large Magellanic Cloud, is an unusual supernova remnant.
Image Credit: NASA, ESA, and Y. Chou (Academia Sinica, Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics); Processing: Gladys Kober (NASA/Catholic University of America)
The Prawn Nebula is a massive stellar nursery located in the constellation Scorpius, about 6,000 light years from Earth
Hubble
