A whale-shaped galaxy?

I’m fascinated by two photographs in a Daily Mail article. They certainly show how a galaxy’s nickname was derived!

Its colours stretching across the inky blackness of outer space this curiously shaped galaxy has been sighted 25 million light years away.

Its technical name from Nasa researchers is NGC 463 but others have likened it to the Cosmic Herring or The Whale Galaxy.

In this gorgeous colour image, the galaxy’s yellowish core, dark dust clouds, bright blue star clusters, and red star forming regions glow brightly. It is also known to have spouted a halo of hot gas at one point.

The galaxy, which is similar in size to our own Milky Way, was found near the northern constellation Canes Venatici.

Scientists said its slightly distorted wedge shape and bright clusters made it fairly easy to find.

Amazing likeness of shape and outline, isn’t it? I love it when Nature throws us a curve ball like that!

Peter