This figure-eight galaxy is big
This curiously shaped galaxy is big. Its central bar structure, just the portion wrapped in spirals, spans more than 150,000 light-years -- roughly the size of our entire Milky Way Galaxy.
The huge galaxy is named NGC 1300, and it sits about 75 million light-years away. It is visible with a small telescope, under dark skies, toward the constellation Eridanus.
To get a view like this, however, you'll need a large telescope and some technique. This picture was made last month by Nicole Bies and Esidro Hernandez, with the help of a professional astronomer, at a nightly observing program at the Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona. The program is designed to introduce total amateurs to the art and science of astronomy and astrophotography. [More about Kitt Peak]
The Milky Way has a central bar too, but because our view of our own galactic
center is edge-on, astronomers have difficulty studying it. They find that studying
the face-on view of NGC 1300 -- despite its grander proportions -- is a useful
way to learn about our galaxy.
Credit: Adam Block/NOAO/AURA/NSF
| 
