The edgewise shot of NGC 4452, a disk galaxy in the nearby Virgo Cluster, was shot recently by the Hubble Space Telescope. All those dots in the background? Those are galaxies too.
But as amazing as this image is, NGC 4452 isn’t especially unique; our very own Milky Way is thought to be about this thin too. Hope you’re sucking in your gut. [APOD via Geekosystem]
Ben Evans
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 1:21 PMkinda puts my shitty week into perspective. Just think for a minute of the strong potential for another camera orbiting a planet in one of those galaxies taking a picture of us.
James Mac
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 1:35 PMForgive my ignorance… why does this happen?
I mean, why are galaxies flat and not round?
Nick
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 1:53 PMWhile I’m no expert, I would imagine that It would have something to do with gravity and the centrifugal forces that are exerted as galaxy spins.
Steve
Wednesday, November 10, 2010 at 2:27 PMWell to be fair, not all Galaxies are spirals. But the ones that are, it’s as Nick says, due to centrifugal forces, a central black hole (supposedly), and plain old accretion.