Facing NGC 3344
From NASA’s Astronomy
Picture of the Day
From our vantage point
in the Milky Way Galaxy, we see NGC 3344 face-on.
Nearly 40,000
light-years across, the big, beautiful spiral
galaxy is located just 20 million light-years away in the
constellation of Leo Minor.
This multi-color Hubble
Space Telescope close-up of NGC 3344 includes remarkable
details from near infrared to ultraviolet wavelengths.
The frame extends some
15,000 light-years across the spiral's central regions.
From the core
outward, the galaxy's colors change from the
yellowish light of old stars in the center to young blue star clusters and
reddish star forming regions along the loose, fragmented spiral arms.
