Posted on Jul 22, 2022
APOD: 2022 July 22 - Spiral Galaxy M74: A Sharper View
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Good Red Friday evening, Rallypoint, and welcome to the July 22nd edition of Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD): "Spiral Galaxy M74: A Sharper View." M74 (e.g. Messier 74, aka NGC 628 and the Phantom Galaxy) lies 32 million light years from Earth in the constellation Pisces. It was discovered by Pierre Méchain in 1780, who reported his findings to his friend Charles Messier (who subsequently listed it in his catalog).
The nickname 'Phantom Galaxy' is due to M74's low surface brightness in the visible spectrum. This image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) emphasizing the near- and mid-infrared light coming from M74 is anything but ghostly. You can clearly see two spiral arms, star-forming regions, and a complex web of dusty structures throughout this island universe. Three supernovae have been detected in M74 in recent decades: SN 2002ap in 2002, SN 2003gd in 2003, and SN 2013ej in 2013.
The nickname 'Phantom Galaxy' is due to M74's low surface brightness in the visible spectrum. This image from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) emphasizing the near- and mid-infrared light coming from M74 is anything but ghostly. You can clearly see two spiral arms, star-forming regions, and a complex web of dusty structures throughout this island universe. Three supernovae have been detected in M74 in recent decades: SN 2002ap in 2002, SN 2003gd in 2003, and SN 2013ej in 2013.
APOD: 2022 July 22 - Spiral Galaxy M74: A Sharper View
Posted from apod.nasa.gov
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Posted 2 y ago
Responses: 3
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Spiral appears to move clockwise and at the center is what appears to be a bright object but may be an illusion due to the massive distance which might have a tendency to group stars together to make them appear as a single object, like a sun. Could it be a sun?
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Maj William W. 'Bill' Price
SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D Could be. My guess is an accretion disk.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretion_disk
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accretion_disk
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SPC Michael Duricko, Ph.D
Maj William W. 'Bill' Price Wow that's brand new to me, no surprise, but so fascinating and so much more to learn. Thank you Sir for my new learned knowledge for the day.
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