M33 Unveiled: A Spiral Galaxy Like No Other (Jedadiah Ashford)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Triangulum (Tri) · Contains: HD9269 · HD9483 · IC 131 · IC 132 · IC 133 · IC 135 · IC 136 · IC 137 · IC 142 · IC 143 · M 33 · NGC 588 · NGC 592 · NGC 595 · NGC 598 · NGC 604 · Triangulum Galaxy · Triangulum Pinwheel

Powered byPixInsight

M33 Unveiled: A Spiral Galaxy Like No Other

Powered byPixInsight

M33 Unveiled: A Spiral Galaxy Like No Other

M33, the Triangulum Galaxy, is located in the diminutive constellation of Triangulum and is one of the most distant permanent objects that can be viewed with the naked eye, assuming you've got stellar seeing conditions. Officially cataloged as Messier 33 and NGC 598, it's our cosmic neighbor, a mere 3 million light-years away. Andromeda Galaxy is 2.4M light years away.

The Triangulum Galaxy is part of our Local Group of galaxies, which means it's in good company, alongside the Milky Way and Andromeda. Despite being the third-largest galaxy in the Local Group, M33 is something special because it lacks the bright, bulging core you'd expect. Its center is relatively subdued, leading to an ethereal appearance that can make it a challenge to observe but a delight when you do. With the Andromeda Galaxy being the largest in our local group at 200,000 light years across, and our Milky Way galaxy at 100,000 light years across, the Triangulum Galaxy is still a respectable 60,000 light years in length!

One of the most remarkable aspects of the Triangulum Galaxy is its abundance of star-forming regions. These nebulous areas are clearly seen as bright red clouds where massive stars are born out of compressing gas. It's a cosmic maternity ward about 60,000 light-years in diameter, a bustling area of new star formation.

The Triangulum Galaxy is gradually being pulled into the orbit of the Andromeda Galaxy. But fear not—the actual collision isn't expected to occur for another 2.5 to 4 billion years, so there's still time to grab some popcorn.

All told, the Triangulum Galaxy has been one of my favorite galaxies to capture.

Please note: The following tables are updated every 24 hours.

Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8466817
PixInsight job	UQWDPA14W06W05MQ791T7YHXP3IK2W68
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	01h33m59s.999
RA (top/left)	01h34m38s.750
RA (top/right)	01h37m11s.430
RA (bottom/right)	01h33m21s.723
RA (bottom/left)	01h30m48s.362

Dec (center)	+30°40′44″.34
Dec (top/left)	+31°21′03″.25
Dec (top/right)	+30°39′58″.79
Dec (bottom/right)	+30°00′25″.40
Dec (bottom/left)	+30°41′13″.20

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

M33 Unveiled: A Spiral Galaxy Like No Other

M33 Unveiled: A Spiral Galaxy Like No Other

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):

M33 Unveiled: A Spiral Galaxy Like No Other

M33 Unveiled: A Spiral Galaxy Like No Other

Equipment

Acquisition details

Description

Comments

Sky plot

Histogram

Notifications

AstroBin is in READ ONLY mode

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Sorry :-(

Are you really sure?

Warning!

Warning!

Are you sure?

Report abuse

Slideshow settings

IOTD/TP stats (last [x] days)

Distribution of astrophotographers

Distribution of subject types

Distribution of data sources

Sorry

Sorry

Share

Upload new revision

Upload uncompressed source (XISF/FITS/PSD/TIFF)

Delete image and all its revisions?

Delete original image?

Delete all other versions?

Delete all revisions?

IOTD/TP stats

The following people like this image

The following people bookmarked this image

Warning

Flag malfunctioning thumbnails

Contains

Remove yourself as a collaborator

Plate-solving information