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Spiral galaxy M74 in Pisces

auteur: Nasa/ESA/Hubble heritage team/Novapix

référence: a-gax06-28001

Image Size 300 DPI: 33 * 32 cm

NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope image of the nearby spiral galaxy M74 (NGC 628), is a composite of Advanced Camera for Surveys' data taken in 2003 and 2005. A small segment of this image used data from the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope and the Gemini Observatory to fill in a region that Hubble did not image. M74 is located roughly 32 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Pisces, the Fish. It is the dominant member of a small group of about half a dozen galaxies, the M74 galaxy group. In its entirety, it is estimated that M74 is home to about 100 billion stars, making it slightly smaller than our Milky Way. Its perfectly symmetrical spiral arms emanate from the central nucleus and are dotted with clusters of young blue stars and glowing pink regions of ionized hydrogen (hydrogen atoms that have lost their electrons). These regions of star formation show an excess of light at ultraviolet wavelengths. Tracing along the spiral arms are winding dust lanes that also begin very near the galaxy's nucleus and follow along the length of the spiral arms.

Keywords for this photo:

2005 - 2007 - ACS - ACT010210 - ASTRONOMY - GALAXY - HST - HUBBLE SPACE TELESCOPE - M74 - NEBULA - NGC 628 - PISCES - Sc - SPIRAL GALAXY - STAR -