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Pretty space pic: NGC 7331 - October 21, 2008

ngc 7331.jpgResurrecting our occasional series of pictures of space is this snap from Spain’s Calar Alto observatory.

The spiral galaxy NGC 7331 is 50 million light-years away and was discovered by Wilhelm Herschel in 1784 and this image is “one of the best snapshots ever obtained”, says the observatory’s press release.

Coverage in Spanish
Galaxias en la punta de los dedos – Levante-EMV
La foto de una galaxia similar a la Vía Láctea, captada por un observatorio español, será imagen del día de la NASA – Europa Press

Posted by Daniel Cressey on October 21, 2008
Categories: Space and astronomy | | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Comments

Most amazing about this image release is that the astronomers explain in all detail how the processing was done! There are often suspicions even among astronomy buffs that some 'pretty pictures' from big observatories or space missions are just too pretty and have been manipulated beyond scientific honesty: Here it's demonstrated for all to see that this is not the case!

Posted by: Daniel Fischer | October 21, 2008 02:45 PM

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