M74: The Perfect Spiral - Nautilus (APOD 01 Dec 2007)

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brbear1
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M74: The Perfect Spiral - Nautilus (APOD 01 Dec 2007)

Post by brbear1 » Sat Dec 01, 2007 3:18 pm

This is a breathtaking picture. As I studied it, I was reminded of the appearance of a cephalopod, the nautilus. On Wikipedia, there is a detailed description of a nautilus and also various pictures of the same. What is especially interesting is the spiral-shaped nature of the nautilus' shell and how it's brown and white striping is reminiscent of the white star bands interspersed with the dark dust lanes in the spiral galaxy, M74.
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goredsox
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Post by goredsox » Sat Dec 01, 2007 8:32 pm

On the high magnification view, there is a definite cellular structure to the dust lanes.
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