August 3, 2015 - Milky Way Looks in the Mirror
Milky Way Looks in the Mirror Spiraling around, 61 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax (the Furnace), NGC 1365 is enormous. At 200,000 light-years across, it is one of the largest galaxies known to astronomers. This, plus the sharply defined bar of old stars across its structure is why it is also known as the Great Barred Spiral Galaxy. Astronomers think that our Milky Way Galaxy may look very similar to this galaxy, but at half the size. The bright center of the galaxy is thought to be due to huge amounts of super-hot gas ejected from the ring of material circling a central black hole. Young luminous hot stars, born out of the interstellar clouds, give the arms a prominent appearance and a blue color. The bar and spiral pattern rotates, with one full turn taking about 350 million years.
Image credit: ESO / IDA / Danish 1.5 m / R. Gendler, J-E. Ovaldsen, C. Thöne, and C. Feron
Weekly Calendar
August 3-9, 2015
Holidays - Sky Events - Space History
Monday 3
2004: MESSENGER spacecraft launched to Mercury
2005: First in-flight space shuttle repair
Tuesday 4
1967: NASA announces sixth astronaut class
1984: First Ariane 3 launched
2007: Phoenix Mars Lander launched
Wednesday 5
Mercury 8° north of Venus
Uranus 1° north of Moon
1930: Neil Armstrong born
1966: Final M2-F1 lifting body glide test
1969: Mariner 7 flies by Mars
2011: Juno spacecraft launched to Jupiter
Thursday 6
Last Qtr Moon 10:03 PM ET
1961: Vostok 2 launched, first full-day human space mission, Gherman Titov first person to sleep in space
2012: Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity lands on Mars
Friday 7
Mercury 0.6° north of Jupiter
Mercury 1° north of Regulus
1959: Explorer 6 launched
1969: Zond 7 launched
1980: Viking 1 orbiter ceases operation
1997: STS-85 Discovery launched
Saturday 8
Pallas appears stationary
Aldebaran 0.7° south of Moon
1978: Pioneer-Venus 2 launched
1989: Hipparcos observatory launched
1989: STS-28 Columbia launched
2001: Genesis spacecraft launched
2007: STS-118 Endeavour launched
Sunday 9
1965: First static test of SIV-B stage
1976: Luna 24 launched