🌌 SpacePicture of a Day: NGC 4651: The Umbrella Galaxy 🪐

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It's raining stars. What appears to be a giant cosmic umbrella is now known to be a tidal stream of stars stripped from a small satellite galaxy. The main galaxy, spiral galaxy NGC 4651, is about the size of our Milky Way, while its stellar parasol appears to extend some 100 thousand light-years above this galaxy's bright disk. A small galaxy was likely torn apart by repeated encounters as it swept back and forth on eccentric orbits through NGC 4651. The remaining stars will surely fall back and become part of a combined larger galaxy over the next few million years. The featured deep image was captured in long exposures from Saudi Arabia. The Umbrella Galaxy lies about 50 million light-years distant toward the well-groomed northern constellation of Berenice's Hair (Coma Berenices). APOD in a Modern Format StellarSnap

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HD image: LINK 🛸

Copyright: No copyright 🔭

Project Website: LINK 🚀

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👨‍🚀 How many people are in space right now? 👩‍🚀

12

Name	Craft
Oleg Kononenko	ISS
Nikolai Chub	ISS
Tracy Caldwell Dyson	ISS
Matthew Dominick	ISS
Michael Barratt	ISS
Jeanette Epps	ISS
Alexander Grebenkin	ISS
Butch Wilmore	ISS
Sunita Williams	ISS
Li Guangsu	Tiangong
Li Cong	Tiangong
Ye Guangfu	Tiangong