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 28
    [2]See Explanation. Clicking on the picture will download the highest
                        resolution version available.

                             Messier 66 Close Up
      Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]Hubble; Processing & Copyright:
                                [6]Leo Shatz

   Explanation: Big, beautiful [7]spiral galaxy Messier 66 lies a mere
   [8]35 million light-years away. The gorgeous island universe is about
   100 thousand light-years across, similar in size to the Milky Way.
   [9]This reprocessed [10]Hubble Space Telescope close-up view spans a
   region about 30,000 light-years wide around the galactic core. It shows
   the galaxy's disk dramatically inclined to our line-of-sight.
   Surrounding its bright core, the likely home of a supermassive black
   hole, obscuring dust lanes and young, blue star clusters sweep
   [11]along spiral arms dotted with the tell-tale glow of pinksh star
   forming regions. Messier 66, also known as NGC 3627, is the brightest
   of the three galaxies in the gravitationaly interacting [12]Leo
   Triplet.

            Tomorrow's picture: North America from North America
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    Authors & editors: [24]Robert Nemiroff ([25]MTU) & [26]Jerry Bonnell
                                 ([27]UMCP)
          NASA Official: Phillip Newman [28]Specific rights apply.
              [29]NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices
                A service of: [30]ASD at [31]NASA / [32]GSFC
                           & [33]Michigan Tech. U.

References

   1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
   2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2101/M66_Hubble_LeoShatz_Crop.jpg
   3. http://www.nasa.gov/
   4. http://www.esa.int/
   5. https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/story/index.html
   6. https://www.astrobin.com/users/spinlock/
   7. ://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/messier-66
   8. https://esahubble.org/images/heic1006a/
   9. https://www.astrobin.com/qzaary/B/?nc=user
  10. https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/not-yet-imagined.html
  11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100413.html
  12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap190418.html
  13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210127.html
  14. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html
  15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html
  16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html
  17. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search
  18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html
  19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod.rss
  20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html
  21. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html
  22. http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=210128
  23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap210129.html
  24. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html
  25. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/
  26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html
  27. http://www.astro.umd.edu/
  28. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply
  29. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html
  30. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/
  31. https://www.nasa.gov/
  32. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/
  33. http://www.mtu.edu/