Explanation:
Magnificent
island
universe NGC 5033 lies some 40 million light-years
away in the well-trained northern constellation
Canes Venatici.
This
telescopic
portrait reveals striking details of dust lanes
winding near the galaxy's bright core
and majestic but relatively faint spiral arms.
Speckled with pink star forming regions and massive blue star clusters,
the arms span over 100,000 light-years, similar in size
to our own spiral Milky Way.
A well-studied example
of the class of Seyfert
active galaxies, NGC 5033
has a core that is very bright and variable.
The emission is likely powered by a supermassive black hole.
The bright nucleus and rotational center of the galaxy also seem
to be slightly offset, suggesting NGC 5033 is the result of an
ancient
galaxy merger.
