The Andromeda constellation is home to the pictured galaxy. Many different classifications are used to identify galaxies by shape and structure - this one is a barred spiral type. These are recognizable by their spiral arms, which fan out not from a circular core, but from an elongated bar cutting through the galaxy's center. There is evidence that this galaxy has experienced some kind of interaction in its past. Galaxies contain vast amounts of mass, and therefore affect one another via gravity. Sometimes these interactions can be mild, and sometimes hugely dramatic, with two or more colliding and merging into a new, bigger galaxy. Understanding the history of a galaxy, and what interactions it has experienced, helps astronomers to improve their understanding of how galaxies - and the stars within them - form.
Image credit: ESA/Hubble & NASA
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Comet hunters still have a chance to see comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková in the next few days using binoculars or a telescope. It's the first of a trio of comets that will -- between now and the end of 2018 -- pass close enough to Earth for backyard observers to try to spot and for scientists to study using ground-based instruments.
This image of Comet 45P/Honda-Mrkos-Pajdušáková was captured using a telescope on December 22 from Farm Tivoli in Namibia, Africa.
Credits: Gerald Rhemann
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