April 22, 2019 - Milky Way Imposters?

Milky Way Imposters? Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope took this stunning portrait of a pair of spiral galaxies. The image offers a glimpse of what our Milky Way galaxy would look like to outside observers viewing it from different locations. The edge-on galaxy is called NGC 4302, and the tilted galaxy is NGC 4298. These galaxies are very similar in terms of their structure and contents, but they look different because of their different orientations. In NGC 4298, the telltale pinwheel-like structure is visible, but it’s not as prominent as in some other spiral galaxies. In the edge-on NGC 4302, dust in the disk is silhouetted against rich lanes of stars. Absorption by dust makes the galaxy appear darker and redder than its companion. Both galaxies are about 55 million light-years away from Earth.

Image credit: NASA, ESA, and M. Mutchler (STScI)

Weekly Calendar

April 22 - 28, 2019

Holidays - Sky Events - Space History

Monday 22

Easter Monday (Canada)

Uranus in conjunction with Sun
Lyrid meteor shower

2010: X-37B spacecraft launched

Tuesday 23

Jupiter 1.6° south of Moon

1858: Max Planck born
1962: Ranger 4 launched
1963: M2-F1 lifting body first free flight
1996: Priroda module launched to Mir space station

Wednesday 24

1970: China becomes fifth nation to launch its own satellite
1990: STS-31 Discovery launched

Thursday 25

Pluto appears stationary
Saturn 0.4° north of Moon
Pluto 0.07° south of Moon

1962: Second Block I Saturn C-1 (SA-2) launched
1990: Hubble Space Telescope deployed
2003: ISS Expedition Seven crew launched on Soyuz TMA-2