Between the foreground dust clouds and diffuse gas (a bit of our own galaxy - an Integrated Flux Nebula - and the intergalactic background, this strikes me as a canonically beautiful image. The galaxies in the background compose the M81 group of galaxies. M81 (Messier 81) itself with M82 (Messier 82) are a gravitationally locked pair interacting visibly, as I've blogged in the past. This is an APOD image.Click once for the APOD page, click through there to see the higher resolution image.
I wish APOD would be more careful to talk about the colors. The red in M82's center is hard to believe.
ReplyDeletePretty picture, though, no doubt about it.
Being colorblind, I tend not to get too exercised. I'm sure the process requires multiple exposures with various filters. The finished product is at best reconstructed, and often the colors have an analytic function that can trump the aesthetic considerations.
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