Explanation:
This colorful
telescopic skyscape is filled with galaxies that
lie nearly 250 million light-years away, the galaxies of
the Perseus cluster.
Their extended and sometimes surprising shapes are seen beyond a
veil of foreground stars in our own Milky Way.
Ultimately consisting of over a thousand galaxies,
the
cluster is filled with yellowish
elliptical and
lenticular galaxies,
like those scattered throughout this view of the cluster's
central region.
Notably, the large galaxy
at the
left is the massive and
bizarre-looking NGC 1275.
A prodigious source of high-energy emission,
active galaxy NGC 1275
dominates the Perseus cluster, accreting matter as entire galaxies
fall into it and feed
the supermassive black hole at the galaxy's core.
Of course, spiral galaxies also inhabit
the Perseus cluster, including the small, face-on spiral
NGC
1268, right of picture center.
The bluish spot on the outskirts of NGC 1268 is supernova SN 2008fg.
At the estimated distance of the Perseus galaxy cluster, this field
spans about 1.5 million light-years.
digg_url = 'http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap090508.html'; digg_skin = 'compact';
