{"id":609223,"date":"2026-08-30T12:28:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/609223\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T12:28:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T12:28:09","slug":"apod-2026-august-30-m74-a-grand-design-spiral","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/609223\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 August 30 \u2013 M74: A Grand Design Spiral"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p-md margin-0 media-detail-hero__description\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tExplanation: If not the most grand, then this <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/universe\/galaxies\/types\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">spiral galaxy<\/a> is at least one of the most photogenic. An <a href=\"https:\/\/ned.ipac.caltech.edu\/level5\/March02\/Gordon\/Gordon2.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">island universe<\/a> of about 100 billion stars, 32 million light-years away toward the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.allthesky.com\/constellations\/pisces\/constell.html:\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">constellation Pisces<\/a>, M74 presents a <a href=\"https:\/\/images.unsplash.com\/photo-1650535812141-04d564530b17\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">gorgeous face-on view<\/a>. Classified as an Sc galaxy, the <a href=\"https:\/\/burro.cwru.edu\/Academics\/Astr222\/Galaxies\/Spiral\/spiral.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">grand design<\/a> of M74&#8217;s graceful spiral arms are traced by bright <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/ap990402.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">blue star clusters<\/a> and dark <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/ap030706.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">cosmic dust<\/a> lanes. <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/hubble\/multimedia\/hubble-images\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Constructed from<\/a> archival images, this <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/hubble\/science\/explore-the-night-sky\/hubble-messier-catalog\/messier-74\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">sharp composite<\/a> is from the <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/hubble\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hubble Space Telescope<\/a>. Spanning about 30,000 <a href=\"https:\/\/spaceplace.nasa.gov\/light-year\/en\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">light-years<\/a> across the face of <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/apod\/ap220722.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">M74<\/a>, it includes exposures recording emission from hydrogen atoms, highlighting the reddish glow of the galaxy&#8217;s large <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/mission\/hubble\/science\/science-highlights\/exploring-the-birth-of-stars\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">star-forming<\/a> regions.<\/p>\n<p>APOD is Moving : From <a href=\"https:\/\/apod.nasa.gov\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">apod.nasa.gov<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/science.nasa.gov\/apod\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">science.nasa.gov\/apod<\/a><br \/>Tomorrow&#8217;s picture: open space<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Explanation: If not the most grand, then this spiral galaxy is at least one of the most photogenic.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":609224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[243471,61,60,82,247],"class_list":["post-609223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-apod","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}