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Credit & Copyright: W. Keel and R. White,
(U. Alabama, Tuscaloosa),
Hubble Heritage Team
(STScI/
AURA),
NASA
Explanation:
Can this be a spiral galaxy?
In fact,
NGC 3314 consists of two large spiral
galaxies which just happen to almost exactly line-up.
The foreground spiral is viewed nearly face-on, its
pinwheel shape defined by young bright star clusters.
But against the glow of the background galaxy, dark swirling lanes of
interstellar dust are
also seen to echo the face-on spiral's structure.
The dust lanes are
surprisingly pervasive, and this remarkable
pair of
overlapping galaxies is one of a small number of systems in which
absorption of visible light can be used to directly explore the
distribution
of dust in distant spirals.
NGC 3314 is about 140 million light-years away in the southern
constellation of Hydra.
Just released, this color
composite was constructed
from Hubble Space Telescope images made in 1999 and 2000.
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NASA Web Site Statements, Warnings, and Disclaimers
NASA Official: Jay Norris. Specific rights apply.
A service of: LHEA at NASA / GSFC
& Michigan Tech. U.
Based on Astronomy Picture
Of the Day
Publications with keywords: dust - NGC 3314 - galaxy pair - spiral galaxy
Publications with words: dust - NGC 3314 - galaxy pair - spiral galaxy
See also:
- APOD: 2025 September 4 B NGC 4565: Galaxy on Edge
- APOD: 2025 August 28 B Galaxies, Stars, and Dust
- APOD: 2025 August 22 B A Tale of Two Nebulae
- APOD: 2025 August 19 B Giant Galaxies in Pavo
- APOD: 2025 August 18 B NGC 1309: A Useful Spiral Galaxy
- APOD: 2025 August 10 B Zodiacal Road
- APOD: 2025 July 4 B NGC 6946 and NGC 6939