06/11/2022
Today’s is a favorite of amateur astronomers!
The fifth brightest galaxy in the sky, Caldwell 77 is 60,000 light-years wide – but this image depicts only 8,500 light-years of it!
More than 100 million years ago, two normal galaxies combined to form this fantastic jumble of star clusters and dust. At the center of the galaxy, a supermassive black hole is steadily consuming cosmic debris, rendering Caldwell 77 an “active” galaxy.
It is located 11 million light-years away in the Centaurus constellation, making it the closest active galaxy to Earth.
Read more: https://go.nasa.gov/3DNwCau
Image credits: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration; Acknowledgment: R. O’Connell (University of Virginia) and the WFC3 Scientific Oversight Committee
