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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.   
      
                                   2022 March 31   
      
                              Exploring the Antennae   
               Image Credit & Copyright: Dietmar Hager, Eric Benson   
      
      Explanation: Some 60 million light-years away in the southerly   
      constellation Corvus, two large galaxies are colliding. Stars in the   
      two galaxies, cataloged as NGC 4038 and NGC 4039, very rarely collide   
      in the course of the ponderous cataclysm that lasts for hundreds of   
      millions of years. But the galaxies' large clouds of molecular gas and   
      dust often do, triggering furious episodes of star formation near the   
      center of the cosmic wreckage. Spanning over 500 thousand light-years,   
      this stunning view also reveals new star clusters and matter flung far   
      from the scene of the accident by gravitational tidal forces. The   
      remarkably sharp ground-based image, an accumulation of 88 hours of   
      exposure captured during 2012-2021, follows the faint tidal tails and   
      distant background galaxies in the field of view. The suggestive   
      overall visual appearance of the extended arcing structures gives the   
      galaxy pair, also known as Arp 244, its popular name - The Antennae.   
      
                         Tomorrow's picture: light-weekend   
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          Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)   
               NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply.   
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                         A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC   
                                & Michigan Tech. U.   
      
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