                        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 29

                            Portrait of NGC 3628
      Image Credit & Copyright: Wilhelm Michael Kasakow, Olaf Guillaume

   Explanation: Sharp telescopic views of NGC 3628 show a puffy galactic
   disk divided by dark dust lanes. Of course, this portrait of the
   magnificent, edge-on spiral galaxy puts some astronomers in mind of its
   popular moniker, the Hamburger Galaxy. It also reveals a small galaxy
   nearby (below), likely a satellite of NGC 3628, and a very faint but
   extensive tidal tail. The drawn out tail stretches for about 300,000
   light-years, even beyond the upper left edge of the frame. NGC 3628
   shares its neighborhood in the local universe with two other large
   spirals M65 and M66 in a grouping otherwise known as the Leo Triplet.
   Gravitational interactions with its cosmic neighbors are likely
   responsible for creating the tidal tail, as well as the extended flare
   and warp of this spiral's disk. The tantalizing island universe itself
   is about 100,000 light-years across and 35 million light-years away in
   the northern springtime constellation Leo.

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