June 15, 2012
The Earth has carried you around the Sun again, steady as ever, while the stars kept their patient watch.
M65 and M66
Birthday · June 15, 2012
A little universe, just for you
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APOD published June 15, 2012. Credit: Bill Snyder. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Nearby and bright, spiral galaxies M65 (top) and M66 stand out in this engaging cosmic snapshot. The pair are just 35 million light-years distant and around 100,000 light-years across, about the size of our own spiral Milky Way. While both exhibit prominent dust lanes sweeping along their broad spiral arms, M66 in particular is a striking contrast in red and blue hues; the telltale pinkish glow of hydrogen gas in star forming regions and young blue star clusters. M65 and M66 make up two thirds of the well-known Leo Triplet of galaxies with warps and tidal tails that offer evidence of the group's past close encounters. The larger M66 has been host to four supernovae discovered since 1973.
Image credit: Bill Snyder