Wide Field Imager view of a Milky Way look-alike, NGC 6744

Wide Field Imager view of a Milky Way look-alike, NGC 6744 (6/1/11)

This picture of the nearby galaxy NGC 6744 was taken with the Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at La Silla. The large spiral galaxy is similar to the Milky Way, making this image look like a picture postcard of our own galaxy sent from extragalactic space. The picture was created from exposures taken through four different filters that passed blue, yellow-green, red light, and the glow coming from hydrogen gas. These are shown in this picture as blue, green, orange and red, respectively.

NGC 6744 – click for 1280×1078 image

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