¿ Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2021 January 26 [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest resolution version available. Central NGC 1316: After Galaxies Collide Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]Hubble; Processing & Copyright: [6]Daniel Nobre Explanation: How did this strange-looking galaxy form? [7]Astronomers turn detectives when trying to figure out the cause of unusual jumbles of stars, gas, and dust like NGC 1316. Inspection indicates that NGC 1316 is an enormous [8]elliptical galaxy that somehow includes dark dust lanes usually found in a [9]spiral galaxy. Detailed images taken by the [10]Hubble Space Telescope shows details, however, that help in reconstructing the history of this [11]gigantic tangle. Deep and wide images show [12]huge collisional shells, while deep central images reveal fewer [13]globular clusters of stars toward NGC 1316's interior. Such effects are expected in galaxies that have undergone collisions or merging with other [14]galaxies in the past few billion years. The dark knots and lanes of [15]dust, prominent in the [16]featured image, indicate that one or more of the devoured galaxies were spiral galaxies. [17]NGC 1316 spans about 50,000 light years and lies about 60 million [18]light years away [19]toward the constellation of the Furnace ([20]Fornax). Tomorrow's picture: galaxy magnet __________________________________________________________________ [21]< | [22]Archive | [23]Submissions | [24]Index | [25]Search | [26]Calendar | [27]RSS | [28]Education | [29]About APOD | [30]Discuss | [31]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [32]Robert Nemiroff ([33]MTU) & [34]Jerry Bonnell ([35]UMCP) NASA Official: Phillip Newman [36]Specific rights apply. [37]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices A service of: [38]ASD at [39]NASA / [40]GSFC & [41]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2101/NGC1316Center_HubbleNobre_2585.jpg 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. https://www.esa.int/ 5. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/about 6. https://www.astrobin.com/users/Deep_Sky/ 7. https://www.astronomynotes.com/careers/AAS-careerbrochure-2009.pdf 8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliptical_galaxy 9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_galaxy 10. https://esahubble.org/about/faq/ 11. https://i.pinimg.com/originals/fe/3e/d7/fe3ed7e7796e5cac54b9f68447ec7d82.jpg 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170202.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190324.html 14. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/galaxy/en/ 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030706.html 16. https://www.astrobin.com/za9jwh/D/ 17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_1316 18. https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html 19. https://youtu.be/hFboxodn7ZM 20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fornax 21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210125.html 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 25. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 26. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss 28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 30. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210126 31. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210127.html 32. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 33. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 34. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 35. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 36. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 37. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 38. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 39. https://www.nasa.gov/ 40. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 41. http://www.mtu.edu/