October 30, 1996
The Moon has changed phase thousands of times since the beginning of the cosmos, but only once did it shine on the night you arrived.
Grand Design Spiral Galaxy NGC 2997
Birthday · October 30, 1996
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APOD published October 30, 1996. Credit: Anglo-Australian Telescope Board. A publication-date match, not a photo taken on your date. Independent of NASA.
NGC 2997 is a grand design spiral galaxy. Its small nucleus and sprawling spiral arms give it a type "Sc" designation. NGC 2997 is speeding away from us at about 1100 kilometers per second, which would place it at about 55 million light years distant, given current estimates of the expansion rate of our universe. NGC 2997 is thought to have a mass of about 100 billion times that of our Sun, but is probably less massive than our own Milky Way Galaxy. NGC 2997 is not seen face-on - it is thought tilted by about 45 degrees. NGC 2997 is particularly notable for a nucleus surrounded by a chain of hot giant clouds of ionized hydrogen.
Image credit: Anglo-Australian Telescope Board