March 21, 2006
When you were born, the Sun rose on a world that had never seen you before. Since then, every dawn has arrived in a universe subtly altered...
The Coma Cluster of Galaxies
Birthday · March 21, 2006
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APOD published March 21, 2006. Credit: Jim Misti (Misti Mountain Observatory). A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
Almost every object in the above photograph is a galaxy. The Coma Cluster of Galaxies pictured above is one of the densest clusters known - it contains thousands of galaxies. Each of these galaxies houses billions of stars - just as our own Milky Way Galaxy does. Although nearby when compared to most other clusters, light from the Coma Cluster still takes hundreds of millions of years to reach us. In fact, the Coma Cluster is so big it takes light millions of years just to go from one side to the other! Most galaxies in Coma and other clusters are ellipticals, while most galaxies outside of clusters are spirals. The nature of Coma's X-ray emission is still being investigated.
Image credit: Jim Misti (Misti Mountain Observatory)