The Leo Triplet Is Three Galaxies Hangin’ Out Close To One Another, Being Gorgeous.

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The Leo Triplet is a group of three galaxies just hangin’ out, being all gorgeous together. The galaxies which are similar to our own Milky Way goodness are located 35 million light years away, and they hold the record for cosmic relay. Or something.

Bad Astronomy:

This incredible picture is a combination of green, red, and near-infrared filtered images (displayed a bit confusingly as magenta, green, and red respectively in the image above). The three galaxies are all spirals at varying degrees of tilt: M 66 at the lower right is the most open, NGC 3628 is almost exactly edge-on, and M 65 at the upper right is intermediate. Look at how prominent the central dust lane is in NGC 3628!

I’ve seen M 65 and 66 with my own telescope back when I was in high school, and I spent a lot of hours at the end of my driveway poking around the sky. They’re pretty bright, but oddly I don’t remember seeing NGC 3628. I wonder what I would have made of it? Now, with a couple of decades experience under my belt, I can see that the three galaxies are interacting: NGC 3628 has an inflated, puffy disk, and the you can see that wide-flung arm of M66. Those are clear signs the gravity of each of these galaxies is affecting the others.

Outstanding.