Massive Nearby Spiral Galaxy NGC 2841
From NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day
It is one of the more
massive galaxies known. A mere 46 million light-years distant, spiral galaxy
NGC 2841 can be found in the northern constellation of Ursa
Major.
This sharp view of the
gorgeous island universe shows off a striking yellow
nucleus and galactic disk. Dust lanes, small, pink star-forming regions, and
young blue star clusters are embedded in the patchy, tightly wound spiral arms.
In
contrast, many other spirals exhibit grand, sweeping arms with large
star-forming regions.
NGC 2841 has a diameter of over 150,000
light-years, even larger than our
own Milky Way and captured by this composite image merging exposures from
the orbiting 2.4-meter Hubble Space Telescope and the ground-based
8.2-meter Subaru Telescope. X-ray
images suggest that resulting winds and stellar explosions create
plumes of hot gas extending into a halo around NGC
2841.
Image Credit: Hubble, Subaru; Composition & Copyright: Robert Gendler