The spiral galaxy NGC
7814 sits edge on in this view from a telescope atop Hawaii’s Mauna Kea.
With its large central
bulge of stars marred only buy a dark, thin band of interstellar dust, NGC 7814 sits about 45 million
light-years from Earth in the constellation Pegasus. But that distance – one
light-year is the distance light travels in one year, about 5.88 trillion miles
(9.7 trillion kilometers) – pales in comparison with the tens of thousands of
objects in the background of this image, all of which are much more distant
galaxies.
This image was obtained
by Jean-Charles Cuillandre using the CFH12K CCD mosaic camera and
the 11.8-foot (3.6-meter) Canada-France-Hawaii
Telescope.
-- SPACE.com Staff
Credit: Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope/J.-C. Cuillandre /Coelum.
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