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 page updated : December 29, 2007

good heavens!

O Lord, our Lord,
your greatness is seen in all the world...
When I look at the sky, which you have made,
at the moon and stars, which you set in their places-
what is man, that you think of him;
mere man, that you care for him?
Psalm 8 : 1,3,4

Comet Swan latest arrival in the morning sky

Why is this galaxy so thin? Many disk galaxies are actually just as thin as NGC 5866, One galaxy that is situated edge-on is our own Milky Way Galaxy Classified as a lenticular galaxy, NGC 5866 has numerous and complex dust lanes appearing dark and red, while many of the bright stars in the disk give it a more blue underlying hue. Although similar in mass to our Milky Way Galaxy, light takes about 60,000 years to cross NGC 5866, about 30 percent less than light takes to cross our own Galaxy! Galaxy NGC 5866 lies about 44 million light years distant toward the constellation of the Dragon.
Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI,AURA); Acknowledgment: W. Keel (U.Alabama)

  LATEST SPITZER IMAGE

A CAULDRON OF STARS AT THE GALAXY'S CENTRE

This dazzling infrared image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope shows hundreds of thousands of stars crowded into the swirling core of our spiral Milky Way galaxy. In visible-light pictures, this region cannot be seen at all because dust lying between Earth and the galactic centre blocks our view. In this false-colour picture, old and cool stars are blue, while dust features lit up by blazing hot, massive stars are shown in a reddish hue. Both bright and dark filamentary clouds can be seen, many of which harbour stellar nurseries. The plane of the Milky Way's flat disk is apparent as the main, horizontal band of clouds. The brightest white spot in the middle is the very centre of the galaxy, which also marks the site of a super massive black hole. The region pictured here is immense, with a horizontal span of 890 light-years and a vertical span of 640 light-years. Earth is located 26,000 light-years away, out in one of the Milky Way's spiral arms. Though most of the objects seen in this image are located at the galactic centre, the features above and below the galactic plane tend to lie closer to Earth.

The magic of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope comes alive in an online interactive presentation, available now at
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/stars_galaxies/ 
 http://www.nasa.gov/centers/jpl/starsgalaxies/index.html

The show-and-tell feature highlights colourful images of  galaxies, nebulas and other celestial wonders, all captured
during the mission's first year-and-a-half in space.  The images, coupled with artists' concepts, text and interviews
with scientists, illustrate how Spitzer's powerful infrared eyes are dramatically enhancing our knowledge of the universe.