Todays pretty space picture is a new snap from the Hubble Space Telescope. This is spiral galaxy Messier 74, a feature that amateur astronomers find so hard to detect in the night sky that it has been nicknamed The Phantom Galaxy.
Located about 32 million light-years away, there are around 100 billion stars in the galaxy (press release).
Image: NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration
http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/2007/11/a_christmas_card_from_hubble.html
http://www.spacetelescope.org/news/html/heic0719.html
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