Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Triangulum (Tri)  ·  Contains:  M 33  ·  NGC 598  ·  Triangulum Galaxy  ·  Triangulum Pinwheel
M33, Jason Lichter
M33
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M33

M33, Jason Lichter
M33
Powered byPixInsight

M33

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Description

M33 is over 50,000 light-years in diameter, third largest in the Local Group of galaxies after the Andromeda Galaxy (M31), and our own Milky Way. About 3 million light-years from the Milky Way, M33 is itself thought to be a satellite of the Andromeda Galaxy and astronomers in these two galaxies would likely have spectacular views of each other's grand spiral star systems. As for the view from planet Earth, this image shows off M33's blue star clusters and pinkish star forming regions along the galaxy's loosely wound spiral arms. In fact, the cavernous NGC 604 is the brightest star forming region, seen here at about the 1 o'clock position from the galaxy center. Like M31, M33's population of well-measured variable stars have helped make this nearby spiral a cosmic yardstick for establishing the distance scale of the Universe.

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M33, Jason Lichter