Image of the Day: A Trillion Miles from Earth: A Spectacular Spiral Galaxy

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About trillion miles away from earth, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope photographed a spectacular and stunning image of a spiral galaxy named NGC 4911 which lies over 320 million ligh-years away from the “Coma Cluster” of about 1,000 galaxies and islands of stars which is likely similar to the Milky Way. Looking at this stunning image forces one to ask: what mysteries and life forms exist there?

One light year is equivalent to 5.9 trillion miles.The galaxy consists of “rich lanes of dusts and gases near its center. NASA Scientists reported that the cluster is one of the densest collections of galaxies in a nearby universe. It was entitled “Island Universe” that shows the “majestic face-on spiral galaxy” in the Northern Constellation Coma Bernices amid a sea of stars.

The image combines data from 2006, 2007 and 2009, which is a high resolution copy of the image.The formations seen along the arms of the main galaxy are the result of the nearby galaxy which is passing “perilously close to each other”. The galaxy and other spiral near the center of the cluster are being transformed by gravitational tug of their neighbors.

(via dailygalaxy)