Hey, it's been way too long since I've done a Spiral Galaxy Monday, so here's a good one. My love for big splashy spiral galaxies is well documented, but sometimes I also love one when it gets a bit edgy. Which is why I present to you NGC 4183, a very nearly edge-on spiral in the constellation of Canes Venatici, the hunting dogs:
[Click to galactinate.] This Hubble image is pretty amazing: you can see individual stars in the galaxy, even though it's 55 million light years away! That's 550 quintillion kilometers, in case you're wondering. And astronomers consider that to be close by as galaxies go. This unusual image is a combination of visible light from the galaxy plus light in the near-infrared, just outside what the human eye can detect. You can see bluer regions where stars are busy being born, the more massive and hotter newborns lighting ...
