December 7, 1997
Somewhere above you, light is arriving from places so distant their names feel like poetry.
A Distant Cluster of Galaxies
Birthday · December 7, 1997
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published December 7, 1997. Full image credits are on the original APOD entry below. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
In this 1994 Hubble Space Telescope photograph, every bright object is a galaxy. Oddly - most of them are spiral galaxies. This rich cluster of galaxies, named CL 0939+4713, is almost half way across the visible universe. Photos like this indicate that clusters in the past contained a higher fraction of spirals than do nearby clusters which are usually dominated by elliptical galaxies.