Messier 33, Spiral Galaxy [Robotic, GMO_Legacy]

A much more conventional looking spiral this time - shows how the spiral arms should be blue. Has quite a small core/bulge.

 

One of about 50 galaxies in our neighbouring "Local Group", Messier 33 lies about 2.7 million LY away. A trail of gas connects it to the much larger Andromeda galaxy and it is likely that it has gravitationally interacted with Andromeda in the past - this may explain why M33 has a very small core region.

Several areas in the galaxy are bright enough to warrant their own NGC classification numbers:

 

NGC 604 is the very prominent HII region at the NW

NGC 595 is a smaller bright HII region just to the right and above the core.

NGC 592 lies due East of the core and is a small diffuse HII area

NGC 588 lies along the same line as NGC 592 - just further East. Another diffuse HII zone.

 

Apparent size: 70.8 x 41 arc minutes

 

Legacy Data from Grand Mesa Observatory, Colorado.

M33 is in the constellation Triangulum.

Done