Messier 74, M74, NGC 628, Spiral Galaxy


Galaxy M74, as seen by Spitzer's infrared array camera. In all the images, the blue dots represent hot gas and stars. The galaxy's cool dust is shown in red. Astronomers using NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope have spotted a "dust factory" 30 million light-years away in the spiral galaxy M74. The factory is located at the scene of a massive star's explosive death, or supernova. While astronomers have suspected for years that supernovae could be producers of cosmic dust particles, the technology to confirm this suspicion has only recently become available.


Size: 3240px × 3246px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No

Keywords: 2003gd, 74, 628, astronomical, astronomy, body, burst, celestial, deep, dust, exploding, explosion, factory, galaxies, galaxy, heavenly, m74, messier, ngc, object, radiation, remnant, science, sky, sn, space, spiral, star, stellar, supernova