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                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our
      fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation
                    written by a professional astronomer.

                                2025 March 21

                                The Leo Trio
                  Image Credit & Copyright: Rabeea Alkuwari

   Explanation: This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around
   the March equinox and the northern hemisphere spring. Famous as the Leo
   Triplet, the three magnificent galaxies found in the prominent
   constellation Leo gather here in one astronomical field of view. Crowd
   pleasers when imaged with even modest telescopes, they can be
   introduced individually as NGC 3628 (bottom left), M66 (middle right),
   and M65 (top center). All three are large spiral galaxies but tend to
   look dissimilar, because their galactic disks are tilted at different
   angles to our line of sight. NGC 3628, also known as the Hamburger
   Galaxy, is temptingly seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanes cutting
   across its puffy galactic plane. The disks of M66 and M65 are both
   inclined enough to show off their spiral structure. Gravitational
   interactions between galaxies in the group have left telltale signs,
   including the tidal tails and warped, inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the
   drawn out spiral arms of M66. This gorgeous view of the region spans
   over 1 degree (two full moons) on the sky. Captured with a telescope
   from Sawda Natheel, Qatar, planet Earth, the frame covers over half a
   million light-years at the Leo Trio's estimated 30 million light-year
   distance.

                    Tomorrow's picture: one hand clapping
     __________________________________________________________________

       Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff (MTU) & Jerry Bonnell (UMCP)
            NASA Official: Amber Straughn Specific rights apply.
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                      A service of: ASD at NASA / GSFC,
                           NASA Science Activation
                             & Michigan Tech. U.

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