We are on a roll, Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) have chosen our negative image of the Coma Berenices Galaxy Cluster as their picture today.
Spring is definitely galaxy season for astronomers and we take advantage of it (weather permitting).The most well known galaxy clusters swing into view at night during the spring months and this picture shows the famous “Coma Cluster” of galaxies in Coma Berenices. It is located between the constellations of Ursa Major (Big Dipper) and Virgo.
Sometimes it’s better to show a negative image rather than a full-colour version if you want to see all the “faint fuzzies” in the mirror’s field of view. Every dot on this image that’s not obviously a star (with diffraction spikes) is a galaxy. There are hundreds in this field!
The image was acquired on April 8, 2007 with processing performed shortly afterwards.
