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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.   
      
                                  2026 February 4   
       A spiral galaxy is shown that seems to have rings in place of spiral   
        arms. The outer ring is blue and filled with stars, while the inner   
          ring is more red. The center has a vertical bar. Please see the   
                    explanation for more detailed information.   
      
                        Spiral Galaxy NGC 1512: Wide Field   
                      Image Credit & Copyright: Daniel Stern   
      
      Explanation: Most galaxies don't have any rings -- why does this galaxy   
      have three? To begin, a ring that's near NGC 1512's center -- and so   
      hard to see here -- is the nuclear ring which glows brightly with   
      recently formed stars. Next out is a ring of stars and dust appearing   
      both red and blue, called, counter-intuitively, the inner ring. This   
      inner ring connects ends of a diffuse central bar of stars that runs   
      horizontally across the galaxy. Farthest out in this wide field image   
      is a ragged structure that might be considered an outer ring. This   
      outer ring appears spiral-like and is dotted with clusters of bright   
      blue stars. All these ring structures are thought to be affected by NGC   
      1512's own gravitational asymmetries in a drawn-out process called   
      secular evolution. The featured image was captured last month from a   
      telescope at Deep Sky Chile in Chile.   
      
                          Tomorrow's picture: open space   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.   
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