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                           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 April 4   
      
                                 Hickson 44 in Leo   
                        Image Credit & Copyright: Jiang Wu   
      
      Explanation: Scanning the skies for galaxies, Canadian astronomer Paul   
      Hickson and colleagues identified some 100 compact groups of galaxies,   
      now appropriately called Hickson Compact Groups. The four prominent   
      galaxies seen in this intriguing telescopic skyscape are one such   
      group, Hickson 44. The galaxy group is about 100 million light-years   
      distant, far beyond the spiky foreground Milky Way stars, toward the   
      constellation Leo. The two spiral galaxies in the center of the image   
      are edge-on NGC 3190 with its distinctive, warped dust lanes, and   
      S-shaped NGC 3187. Along with the bright elliptical, NGC 3193 (above   
      and left) they are also known as Arp 316. The spiral toward the lower   
      right corner is NGC 3185, the 4th member of the Hickson group. Like   
      other galaxies in Hickson groups, these show signs of distortion and   
      enhanced star formation, evidence of a gravitational tug of war that   
      will eventually result in galaxy mergers on a cosmic timescale. The   
      merger process is now understood to be a normal part of the evolution   
      of galaxies, including our own Milky Way. For scale, NGC 3190 is about   
      75,000 light-years across at the estimated distance of Hickson 44.   
      
                         Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend   
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