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posted by Fnord666 on Friday July 19 2019, @11:13PM   Printer-friendly
from the I-thought-astronomers-spotted-things dept.

Galaxies come in many shapes and sizes. One of the key galaxy types we see in the universe is the spiral galaxy, as demonstrated in an especially beautiful way by the subject of this Hubble Space Telescope image, NGC 2985. NGC 2985 lies over 70 million light-years from the solar system in the constellation of Ursa Major (the Great Bear).

The intricate, near-perfect symmetry on display here reveals the incredible complexity of NGC 2985. Multiple tightly wound spiral arms widen as they whirl outward from the galaxy's bright core, slowly fading and dissipating until these majestic structures disappear into the emptiness of intergalactic space, bringing a beautiful end to their starry splendor.

[...] The image (1.7MB) can be found here.


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by edIII on Saturday July 20 2019, @02:41AM (2 children)

    by edIII (791) on Saturday July 20 2019, @02:41AM (#869262)

    I love images like this :)

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 20 2019, @07:08AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 20 2019, @07:08AM (#869316)

    Those of us in the amateur observational astronomy community refer to things like this (galaxies) as "faint fuzzies". We can see them, but nothing like the definition Hubble provides. But still, when I look at a galaxy through my 203mm Newtonian reflector, I am having photons from that object impact my retina, we have a connection. This is why astrophotography, as nice as it is at capturing things that human eyes could never see, is lacking it this direct connection. I prefer real light. It may be old, in some cases almost 13 Billions years old, but it is light I see with my own eyes, here and now.

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by inertnet on Saturday July 20 2019, @11:32AM

    by inertnet (4071) on Saturday July 20 2019, @11:32AM (#869349) Journal

    Then you will probably also like APOD [nasa.gov].