Sister of the Milky Way – the spiral galaxy NGC 6744
Sister of the Milky Way – the spiral galaxy NGC 6744
The space observatory Gaia will map the Milky Way in three dimensions by 2018. The spiral galaxy NGC 6744 probably looks very similar to our home galaxy. Astronomers of the European Southern Observatory used the Wide Field Imager at the MPG / ESO 2.2-meter telescope at La Silla (Chile) to obtain striking images of NGC 6744 and create this image. The galaxy is located about 30 million light years from Earth in the constellation Pavo (the Peacock), visible in the southern sky.
