Credit & Copyright: Jean-Francois Bax & Serge Brunier,
OCA/C2PU;
Text:
Ogetay Kayali
(Michigan Tech U.)
Explanation:
Why does this galaxy look like a
curly vegetable?
The Fiddlehead
spiral galaxy
likely gets its distorted spiral appearance from a
gravitational interaction with its close-by elliptical
companion
NGC 770, seen just below.
Cataloged as NGC 772 and Arp 78,
the Fiddlehead spans over 200,000 light years,
is a nearby 100 million light years beyond
the stars of our Milky Way galaxy, and is visible toward the
constellation of the Ram (Aries).
But in the
featured image,
the Fiddlehead appears to have another companion --
one with a long and fuzzy tail:
Comet
43P/Wolf-Harrington.
Though the comet appears to be aimed straight at the massive galaxy, it is actually
much closer to us, residing only
light minutes away -- well within our Solar System.
The comet will never reach the distant spiral galaxy,
nor is it physically related to it.
By a fortunate trick of perspective, though, these two cosmic wonders briefly share
the same frame taken late last year from
Calern,
France.
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 |
Yanvar' Fevral' Mart Aprel' Mai Iyun' Iyul' Avgust Sentyabr' Oktyabr' Noyabr' Dekabr' |
NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
|
Publikacii s klyuchevymi slovami:
interacting galaxies - vzaimodeistvuyushie galaktiki
Publikacii so slovami: interacting galaxies - vzaimodeistvuyushie galaktiki | |
Sm. takzhe:
Vse publikacii na tu zhe temu >> | |
