brightestofcentaurus:NGC 6744NGC 6744 is a spiral galaxy located…

brightestofcentaurus:

NGC 6744

NGC 6744 is a spiral galaxy located about 30 million light years away towards the constellation Pavo, the Peacock. It is one of the largest and nearest spiral galaxies, and stretches some 175,000 light years across, and has a small satellite galaxy, NGC 6744A. 

The galaxy is similar to our own Milky Way, though our galaxy stretches only about 100,000 light years across. The dense, elongated nucleus is home to older, yellower stars, while the prominent spiral arms host young star clusters and star forming regions.

Image from ESO, information from ESO and NASA.

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