Links: Discovery News article /

We've all seen many gorgeous images of distant stars and galaxies thanks to the Hubble and other telescopes, but the ultraviolet camera on the Swift Science Satellite is no slouch in that department. It was used to combine 39 individual frames taken over 11 hours of exposure time into an awe inspiring image of M33, also known as the Triangulum Galaxy, a neighboring galaxy located 2.9 million light-years from Earth.

Feb. 26, 2008 -- With an eye for artistry and a thirst for knowledge, scientists patiently pieced together an 11-hour photo shoot of our galactic neighbor M33 taken by a high-resolution ultraviolet camera.

The result reveals a lush, pinwheel-shaped lavender cloud, liberally sprinkled with bursts of fuchsia, glowing like embers in the black sky. Or, to put in the words of NASA astronomer Stefan Immler, "The most detailed ultraviolet image of an entire galaxy ever taken."

M33, also known as the Triangulum Galaxy, is a pint-sized companion to our own Milky Way located 2.9 million light-years from Earth. It shares our galaxy's spiral shape, though it contains roughly one-tenth the Milky Way's mass.

(Source: Discovery News)

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