                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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 July 4

                            NGC 6946 and NGC 6939
                 Image Credit & Copyright: Alberto Pisabarro

   Explanation: Face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6946 and open star cluster NGC
   6939 share this cosmic snapshot, composed with over 68 hours of image
   data captured with a small telescope on planet Earth. The field of view
   spans spans about 1 degree or 2 full moons on the sky toward the
   northern constellation Cepheus. Seen through faint interstellar dust
   clouds near the plane of our Milky Way galaxy, the stars of open
   cluster NGC 6939 are 5,600 light-years in the distance, near bottom
   right in the frame. Face-on spiral galaxy NGC 6946 is at top left, but
   lies some 22 million light-years away. In the last 100 years, 10
   supernovae have been discovered in NGC 6946, the latest one seen in
   2017. By comparison, the average rate of supernovae in our Milky Way is
   about 1 every 100 years or so. Of course, NGC 6946 is also known as The
   Fireworks Galaxy.

                       Tomorrow's picture: squid game
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       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
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