NGC 5905 and 5908

*G_Man* · 09-28-2006, 10:02 PM

NGC 5905 and 5908
Credit & Copyright: Stefan Seip
Explanation: These two beautiful galaxies, NGC 5905 (left) and NGC 5908 lie about 140 million light-years distant in the northern constellation Draco. Separated by about 500,000 light-years, the pair are actually both spiral galaxies and nicely illustrate the striking contrasts in appearance possible when viewing spirals from different perspectives. Seen face-on, NGC 5905 is clearly a spiral galaxy with bright star clusters tracing arms that wind outward from a prominent central bar. Oriented edge-on to our view, the spiral nature of NGC 5908 is revealed by a bright nucleus and dark band of obscuring dust characteristic of a spiral galaxy's disk. In fact, NGC 5908 is similar in appearance to the well studied edge-on spiral galaxy M104 - The Sombrero Galaxy.

*Big Boss* · 09-28-2006, 10:14 PM

amazing aint. makes you wonder bout lots of things, and you know there has to be something else out there even if there chances of a planet holding life as we know it are extremely minute there's still gotta be something

*G_Man* · 09-28-2006, 10:25 PM

Quoting: Big Boss

amazing aint. makes you wonder bout lots of things, and you know there has to be something else out there even if there chances of a planet holding life as we know it are extremely minute there's still gotta be something

I agree. Pretty egotistical for us to think otherwise.

**Sp00k** · 09-29-2006, 08:29 AM

Something we all think about at one point in our lives if not frequently.