Subj : Daily APOD Report To : All From : Ben Ritchey Date : Tue Dec 25 2018 08:54:18 Astronomy Picture of the Day Astronomy Picture of the Day Discover the cosmos! [1] Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2018 December 25 [2] M100: A Grand Design Spiral Galaxy Image Credit: NASA [3] , ESA [4] , Hubble [5] Explanation: Majestic on a truly cosmic scale, M100 is appropriately known as a grand design [6] spiral galaxy. It is a large galaxy of over 100 billion stars with well-defined spiral arms that is similar to our own Milky Way Galaxy [7] . One of the brightest members of the Virgo Cluster [8] of galaxies, M100 [9] (alias NGC 4321) is 56 million light-years distant toward the constellation of Berenice's Hair (Coma Berenices [10] ). This [11] Hubble Space [12] Telescope image of M100 was taken recently with the Wide Field Camera 3 [13] and accentuates bright blue star clusters [14] and intricate winding dust lanes [15] which are hallmarks of this class of galaxies. Studies of variable stars in M100 [16] have played an important role in determining the size and age of the Universe [17] . Tomorrow's picture: space lobster ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- < [18] | Archive [19] | Submissions [20] | Index [21] | Search [22] | Calendar [23] | RSS [24] | Education [25] | About APOD [26] | Discuss [27] | > [28] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Authors & editors: Robert Nemiroff [29] (MTU [30] ) & Jerry Bonnell [31] (UMCP [32] ) NASA Official: Phillip Newman Specific rights apply [33] . NASA Web Privacy Policy and Important Notices [34] A service of: ASD [35] at NASA [36] / GSFC [37] & Michigan Tech. U. [38] ---------- Site notes: [1] archivepix.html [2] image/1812/M100_HubbleWfc3_3679.jpg [3] https://www.nasa.gov/ [4] https://www.esa.int/ [5] https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/story/index.html [6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_design_spiral_galaxy [7] http://www.spitzer.caltech.edu/glimpse360/wwt [8] ap110422.html [9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_100 [10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coma_Berenices [11] https://www.spacetelescope.org/images/potw1850a/ [12] http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hubble/story/ [13] https://www.spacetelescope.org/about/general/instruments/wfc3/ [14] open_clusters.html [15] ap140726.html [16] http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~juda/ism/m100.html [17] http://apod.nasa.gov/debate/debate96.html [18] ap181224.html [19] archivepix.html [20] lib/apsubmit2015.html [21] lib/aptree.html [22] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search [23] calendar/allyears.html [24] /apod.rss [25] lib/edlinks.html [26] lib/about_apod.html [27] http://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=181225 [28] ap181226.html [29] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html [30] http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ [31] https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html [32] http://www.astro.umd.edu/ [33] lib/about_apod.html#srapply [34] https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html [35] https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ [36] https://www.nasa.gov/ [37] https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ [38] http://www.mtu.edu/ --- Mystic BBS v1.12 A40 (Windows/32) * Origin: FIDONet - The Positronium Repository (1:393/68) .