Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2025 March 11 [2]A spiral galaxy is shown in great detail. Visible are blue star clusters, red nebulas, and brown dust in a spiral pattern around the image and galaxy center. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. NGC 1672: Barred Spiral Galaxy from Hubble Image Credit: [3]ESA/Hubble & [4]NASA, [5]O. Fox, L. Jenkins, S. Van Dyk, A. Filippenko, J. Lee and the [6]PHANGS-HST Team, D. de Martin (ESA/Hubble), M. Zamani (ESA/Hubble) Explanation: Many spiral galaxies have bars across their centers. Even our own [7]Milky Way Galaxy is thought to have a [8]modest central bar. Prominently barred spiral galaxy NGC 1672, [9]featured here, was captured in spectacular detail in an image taken by the orbiting [10]Hubble Space Telescope. Visible are dark filamentary [11]dust lanes, young [12]clusters of bright blue stars, red [13]emission nebulas of glowing hydrogen gas, a long bright bar of [14]stars across the center, and a bright [15]active nucleus that likely houses a supermassive [16]black hole. Light takes about 60 million years to reach us from [17]NGC 1672, which spans about 75,000 [18]light years across. [19]NGC 1672, which appears toward the constellation of the Dolphinfish ([20]Dorado), has [21]been studied to find out how a spiral bar contributes to star formation in a galaxy's central regions. Tomorrow's picture: comet versus galaxy __________________________________________________________________ [22]< | [23]Archive | [24]Submissions | [25]Index | [26]Search | [27]Calendar | [28]RSS | [29]Education | [30]About APOD | [31]Discuss | [32]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [33]Robert Nemiroff ([34]MTU) & [35]Jerry Bonnell ([36]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [37]Specific rights apply. [38]NASA Web Privacy, [39]Accessibility, [40]Notices; A service of: [41]ASD at [42]NASA / [43]GSFC, [44]NASA Science Activation & [45]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2503/NGC1672B_Hubble_4000.jpg 3. https://esahubble.org/ 4. https://www.nasa.gov/ 5. https://www.stsci.edu/stsci-research/research-directory/ori-fox 6. https://phangs.stsci.edu/ 7. https://science.nasa.gov/resource/the-milky-way-galaxy/ 8. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050825.html 9. https://esahubble.org/images/potw2445a/ 10. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/overview/about-hubble/ 11. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060219.html 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/open_clusters.html 13. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/emission_nebulae.html 14. https://science.nasa.gov/universe/stars/ 15. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_galactic_nucleus 16. http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/rjn_bht.html 17. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_1672 18. https://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/cosmic_distance.html 19. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGuct0CGHiA 20. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorado 21. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2011ApJ...734...33J/abstract 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250310.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 28. https://apod.com/feed.rss 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 31. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=250311 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250312.html 33. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 34. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 35. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 36. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 37. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 38. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 39. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/ 40. https://www.nasa.gov/privacy/ 41. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 42. https://www.nasa.gov/ 43. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 44. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 45. http://www.mtu.edu/