APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
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.
Giant Galaxies in Pavo
Explanation: Over 500,000 light years across, NGC 6872 (top right) is a truly enormous barred spiral galaxy , at least 5 times the size of our own very large Milky Way. The appearance of this giant galaxy's distorted and stretched out spiral arms suggests the magnificent wings of a giant bird. Of course its popular moniker is the Condor galaxy. It lies about 200 million light-years distant toward the southern constellation Pavo, the Peacock. Lined with star-forming regions , the distorted spiral arms are due to NGC 6872's gravitational interaction with the nearby smaller galaxy IC 4970 , seen just above the giant galaxy's core. The Pavo galaxy group's dominant giant elliptical galaxy, NGC 6876 is below and left of the soaring Condor galaxy.
| Date | June 23, 2023 |
|---|---|
| Credit | Image Credit & Copyright: Mike Selby , Observatorio El Sauce |
| Authors & editors: | Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP) |
| A service of: |
ASD at NASA / GSFC, NASA Science Activation & Michigan Tech. U. |