Astronomy Picture of the Day

Explanation: This popular group leaps into the early evening sky around theMarch equinox andthe northern hemisphere spring. Famous as theLeo Triplet,the three magnificent galaxies found in the prominentconstellation Leogather here in one astronomical field of view.Crowd pleasers when imaged with even modesttelescopes, they can be introduced individually asNGC 3628 (bottom left), M66 (middle right), and M65 (top center).All three are largespiral galaxiesbut tend to look dissimilar, because their galactic disks aretilted at different angles to our line of sight.NGC 3628,also known as the Hamburger Galaxy,is temptingly seen edge-on, with obscuring dust lanescutting across its puffy galactic plane.The disksof M66andM65 areboth inclined enough to show off their spiral structure. Gravitational interactions between galaxies in the grouphave left telltale signs, including the tidal tails andwarped, inflated disk of NGC 3628 and the drawn out spiral arms of M66.This gorgeous viewof the region spans over 1 degree (two full moons) on the sky.Captured with a telescope fromSawda Natheel, Qatar, planet Earth,the frame covers over half a million light-years at theLeo Trio's estimated 30 million light-year distance.