June 15, 2007
On the day you were born, the universe did what it has always done best: transformed chaos into beauty.
Messier 96
Birthday · June 15, 2007
A little universe, just for you
Your date.
Ready to give.
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APOD published June 15, 2007. Credit: Adam Block (Caelum Observatory), Acknowledgement: R. Jay GaBany. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Dust lanes seem to swirl around the core of Messier 96 in this colorful, detailed portrait of the beautiful island universe. Of course M96 is a spiral galaxy, and counting the faint arms extending beyond the brighter central region it spans 100 thousand light-years or so, about the size of our own Milky Way. M96 is known to be 38 million light-years distant, a dominant member of the Leo I galaxy group. Background galaxies and smaller Leo I group members can be found by examining the picture, but accomplished astro-imager Adam Block notes he is most intrigued by the edge-on spiral galaxy that apparently lies behind the outer spiral arm near the 10 o'clock position. The edge-on spiral appears to be about 1/5 the size of M96. If the spiral is similar in actual size to M96, then it lies about 5 times farther away.
Image credit: Adam Block (Caelum Observatory), Acknowledgement: R. Jay GaBany