MSGID: 1:153/757.0 baf16e2d   
   TZUTC: -0700   
   CHRS: LATIN-1 2   
                           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 April 14   
      
                                    Messier 96   
               Image Credit & Copyright: Mark Hanson and Mike Selby   
      
      Explanation: Spiral arms seem to swirl around the core of Messier 96 in   
      this colorful, detailed portrait of a beautiful island universe. Of   
      course M96 is a spiral galaxy, and counting the faint arms extending   
      beyond the brighter central region it spans 100 thousand light-years or   
      so. That's about the size of our own Milky Way. M96 is known to be 38   
      million light-years distant, a dominant member of the Leo I galaxy   
      group. Background galaxies and smaller Leo I group members can be found   
      by examining the picture. The most intriguing one is itself a spiral   
      galaxy seen nearly edge on behind the outer spiral arm near the 1   
      o'clock position from center. Its bright central bulge cut by its own   
      dark dust clouds, the edge-on background spiral appears to be about 1/5   
      the size of M96. If that background galaxy is similar in actual size to   
      M96, then it would be about 5 times farther away.   
      
                     Tomorrow's picture: the red planet rocks   
        __________________________________________________________________   
      
          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.   
      
   --- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-6   
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