Trio Leo
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture ofthe Day
This popular group is
famous as the Leo Triplet - a gathering of three
magnificent galaxies in one field of view.
Crowd pleasers when
imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be introduced individually as NGC
3628 (left), M66 (bottom right), and M65 (top).
All three are large spiral galaxies but they tend to look
dissimilar because their galactic disks are tilted at different angles to our
line of sight.
NGC 3628 is
seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting across the plane of the galaxy,
while the disks of M66 and M65
are both inclined enough to show off their spiral structure.
Gravitational
interactions between galaxies in the group have also left telltale signs,
including the warped and inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the
drawn out spiral arms of M66.
This gorgeous view of the region spans about
one degree (two full moons) on the sky. The field covers over 500 thousand
light-years at the trio's estimated distance of 30 million light-years.
