Magnificent View of Spiral Galaxy Messier 77

The Spiral galaxy Messier 77, 47 million light-years away and found in the constellation of Cetus (The Sea Monster) is captured in its full glory by the European Southern Observatory.

ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) has captured a magnificent face-on view of the barred spiral galaxy Messier 77. The image does justice to the galaxy’s beauty, showcasing its glittering arms criss-crossed with dust lanes — but it fails to betray Messier 77’s turbulent nature.

This picturesque spiral galaxy appears to be tranquil, but there is more to it than meets the eye. Messier 77 (also known as NGC 1068) is one of the closest active galaxies, which are some of the most energetic and spectacular objects in the Universe. Their nuclei are often bright enough to outshine the whole of the rest of the galaxy. Active galaxies are among the brightest objects in the Universe and emit light at most, if not all, wavelengths, from gamma rays and X-rays all the way to microwaves and radiowaves. Messier 77 is further classified as a Type II Seyfert galaxy, characterised by being particularly bright at infrared wavelengths.

Star Cluster Messier 7 Shines Bright At The Tail End of The Scorpion

Star Cluster Messier 7 can be found shining brightly at the end of the tail end of the constellation Scorpius (The Scorpion). This group of stars is also known as Ptolemy's Cluster in honor of Claudius Ptolemy who discovered this star cluster around 130 AD. As the name implies, it is the 7th entry of Charles Messier's Catalog of Nebulae and Star Clusters done in 1764.

Messier 7 is about 800 light years from the Earth and is comprised of about 100 stars. It is a bright patch of stars that is visible to the naked eye found near the tail of the Scorpius constellation.

The latest images from the European Southern Observatory's Wide Field Imager on the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope shows Messier 7 shining like diamonds against the backdrop of a multitude of stars.

These bright stars are believed to be close to exploding into a supernova as it is over 200 million years old.

Messier 7 is an open star cluster. Open star clusters are loose clustered groups of stars that are held together by a very weak gravitational attraction to each other.