MSGID: 1:153/757.0 4905deec
TZUTC: -0700
CHRS: LATIN-1 2
                        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 April 7
   A bright spiral galaxy fills the image with blue spiral arms laced with
        red-brown dust. Please see the explanation for more detailed
                                information.

                    NGC 4414: A Flocculent Spiral Galaxy
     Image Credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, O. Graur, S. W. Jha, A. Filippenko

   Explanation: How much mass do flocculent spirals hide? The featured
   image of flocculent spiral galaxy NGC 4414 was taken with the Hubble
   Space Telescope to help answer this question. Flocculent spirals --
   galaxies without well-defined spiral arms -- are a quite common form of
   galaxy, and NGC 4414 is one of the closest. Stars and gas near the
   visible edge of spiral galaxies orbit the center so fast that the
   gravity from a large amount of unseen dark matter must be present to
   hold them together. Understanding the matter and dark matter
   distribution of NGC 4414 helps humanity calibrate the rest of the
   galaxy and, by deduction, flocculent spirals in general. Further,
   calibrating the distance to NGC 4414 helps humanity calibrate the
   cosmological distance scale of the entire visible universe.

                      Tomorrow's picture: Moon sisters
     __________________________________________________________________

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

--- BBBS/Li6 v4.10 Toy-7
 * Origin: The Rusty MailBox - Penticton, BC Canada (1:153/757)
SEEN-BY: 19/10 105/81 106/201 128/187 129/305 134/100 153/135 143
SEEN-BY: 153/148 151 153 757 6809 7083 7715 154/110 218/700 840 221/1
SEEN-BY: 221/6 360 226/30 227/114 229/110 114 206 307 317 400 426
SEEN-BY: 229/428 470 664 700 705 240/1120 266/512 291/111 301/1 113
SEEN-BY: 301/812 320/219 322/757 335/364 341/66 342/200 396/45 460/58
SEEN-BY: 460/256 1124 633/280 712/848 902/26 5020/400 1042 8912 5054/30
SEEN-BY: 5075/35
PATH: 153/757 221/6 301/1 460/58 229/426