March 10, 2017
On the day you were born, another consciousness opened inside the cosmos and began taking notes.
Galaxy Cluster Abell 2666
Birthday · March 10, 2017
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APOD published March 10, 2017. Credit: Bernhard Hubl. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
The galaxies of Abell 2666 lie far beyond the Milky Way, some 340 million light-years distant toward the high flying constellation Pegasus. Framed in this sharp telescopic image, the pretty cluster galaxies are gathered behind scattered, spiky, Milky Way stars. At cluster center is giant elliptical galaxy NGC 7768, the central dominant galaxy of the cluster. As the cluster forms, such massive galaxies are thought to grow by mergers of galaxies that fall through the center of the cluster's gravitational well. Typical of dominant cluster galaxies, NGC 7768 likely harbors a supermassive black hole. At the estimated distance of Abell 2666, this cosmic frame would span about 5 million light-years.
Image credit: Bernhard Hubl