June 17, 1999
Your birthday is not just a date on a calendar. It is the yearly return of a moment when the universe became more observant, more feeling,...
NGC 4565: Needle Galaxy
Birthday · June 17, 1999
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APOD published June 17, 1999. Credit: William McLaughlin (ARGO Cooperative Observatory). A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Presenting a sleek needle-like profile the magnificent spiral galaxy NGC 4565 is viewed edge-on from planet Earth. Its core of stars bulges from the centre of a thin disk of spiral arms and dust. The core appears to be cut sharply by dust lanes to dramatic effect in this composite image. NGC 4565's obscuring dust lanes and pronounced core are typical of large majestic spiral galaxies, including our own Milky Way. To make this picture, astronomer Bill McLaughlin digitally combined a high quality black and white image with colour information from three separate exposures through red, green, and blue filters. This island universe is about 50 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices.
Image credit: William McLaughlin (ARGO Cooperative Observatory)