"Galactic Illusions: Navigating the Depths of Cosmic Perspective"
It's all about perspective. From our point of view, the magnificent spiral galaxies appear to be very close to each other. However, the prominent galaxy to the right of the image, NGC 1356, and LEDA 95415, just to its left, are separated by a distance of about 300 million light years. This image is a very interesting example of how difficult it can be to determine whether two galaxies are really close or if they only appear to be from our Earth's perspective. It must be remembered that two-dimensional images like this only give an indication of angular separation: that is, how objects are spread across the sphere of the night sky. What they cannot represent is the distance at which objects are from Earth.
Image description: A collection of galaxies. On the right side, a large spiral galaxy with twisting, spinning arms is flanked by a smaller, but still detailed, spiral behind its arm on the left, and a smaller spiral above it. On the right side is a fourth round spiral galaxy seen from the front. Among them is a single bright star. Various stars and distant galaxies dot the background.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA, J. Dalcanton,
Dark Energy Study/DOE/FNAL/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA; Acknowledgments: L. Shatz
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