Astronomy Picture of the Day [1]Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. 2025 June 24 [2]A sprawling spiral galaxy is shown in great detail. This galaxy has blue spiral arms and a bright center that itself seems to look like a spiral galaxy. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. In the Center of Spiral Galaxy M61 Image Credit: [3]NASA, [4]ESA, [5]Hubble, [6]ESO; Processing & Copyright: [7]Robert Gendler Explanation: Is there a [8]spiral galaxy in the center of this spiral galaxy? Sort of. [9]Image data from the [10]Hubble Space Telescope, the [11]European Southern Observatory, and smaller telescopes on [12]planet Earth are combined in [13]this detailed portrait of face-on spiral galaxy [14]Messier 61 (M61) and its bright center. A mere 55 million light-years away in the [15]Virgo Cluster of Galaxies, M61 is also known as NGC 4303. It's considered to be an example of a [16]barred spiral galaxy similar to our own [17]Milky Way. Like other spiral galaxies, M61 also features sweeping spiral arms, cosmic dust lanes, pinkish star forming regions, and young blue star clusters. Its core houses an active [18]supermassive black hole surrounded by a bright [19]nuclear spiral -- infalling star-forming gas that [20]itself looks like a separate spiral galaxy. APOD Turns 30!: [21]Free public lecture in Cork, Ireland TONIGHT (Tuesday) at 7 pm Tomorrow's picture: pixels in space and time __________________________________________________________________ [22]< | [23]Archive | [24]Submissions | [25]Index | [26]Search | [27]Calendar | [28]RSS | [29]Education | [30]About APOD | [31]Discuss | [32]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [33]Robert Nemiroff ([34]MTU) & [35]Jerry Bonnell ([36]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [37]Specific rights apply. [38]NASA Web Privacy, [39]Accessibility, [40]Notices; A service of: [41]ASD at [42]NASA / [43]GSFC, [44]NASA Science Activation & [45]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2506/M61_HubbleEsoGendler_2753.jpg 3. https://www.nasa.gov/ 4. https://www.esa.int/ 5. https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/overview/about-hubble/ 6. https://www.eso.org/public/about-eso/ 7. http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/Biography2.html 8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_galaxy 9. https://esahubble.org/images/potw1324a/ 10. https://spaceplace.nasa.gov/hubble/ 11. https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/ 12. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220206.html 13. http://www.robgendlerastropics.com/M61-HST-ESO-New.html 14. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Messier_61 15. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250417.html 16. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221016.html 17. https://science.nasa.gov/resource/the-milky-way-galaxy/ 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap100529.html 19. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2000ApJ...528..677E/abstract 20. https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https://external-preview.redd.it/q8EUhIDfyVNyKn9ZMWx16fUV35w5G7N4cjXcSpePJXY.jpg?width=320&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=43247d01e96d9b6a471835d51173749e4dd5cb3c 21. https://corkastronomyclub.com/astronomy-picture-of-the-day-lecture/ 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250623.html 23. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 26. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 28. https://apod.com/feed.rss 29. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 30. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 31. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=250624 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap250625.html 33. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 34. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 35. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 36. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 37. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 38. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 39. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/ 40. https://www.nasa.gov/privacy/ 41. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 42. https://www.nasa.gov/ 43. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 44. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 45. http://www.mtu.edu/