{"id":581667,"date":"2026-07-12T10:30:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T10:30:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/581667\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T10:30:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T10:30:14","slug":"apod-2026-july-12-galaxy-ngc-474-shells-and-star-streams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/581667\/","title":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 July 12 \u2013 Galaxy NGC 474: Shells and Star Streams"},"content":{"rendered":"

APOD: 2026 July 12 \u2013 Galaxy NGC 474: Shells and Star Streams <\/p>\n

Discover the cosmos!<\/a>
\nEach day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer.\n<\/p>\n

2026 July 12
\n

\n\"A<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

Galaxy NGC 474: Shells and Star Streams <\/b>
Image Credit &
\nLicense<\/a>: <\/b>
\nCFHT<\/a>,
\nCoelum<\/a>,
\nMegaCam<\/a>,
\nJ.-C. Cuillandre<\/a>
\n(CFHT<\/a>) &
\nG. A. Anselmi
\n(Coelum<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Explanation: <\/b>
\nWhat’s happening to galaxy
\nNGC 474<\/a>? <\/p>\n

The multiple layers of emission appear strangely complex given the relatively featureless appearance of the
\nelliptical galaxy<\/a> in less deep images. <\/p>\n

The cause of the
\nshells<\/a> is a topic of research, but they
\nare possibly
\ntidal tail<\/a>s related to debris left over from absorbing numerous small galaxies in the past billion years. <\/p>\n

Alternatively, the shells may be like ripples in a pond, where the ongoing collision with the spiral galaxy just to the right of
\nNGC 474<\/a> is causing
\ndensity waves<\/a>
\nto ripple through the galactic giant. <\/p>\n

Regardless of the actual cause, the featured image<\/a> dramatically highlights the increasing evidence that the halos of some elliptical
\ngalaxies<\/a> are surprisingly complicated. <\/p>\n

Similarly, the halo of our own
\nMilky Way Galaxy<\/a>
\nis one example of such
\nunexpected intricacies<\/a>. <\/p>\n

NGC 474 spans about 250,000
\nlight years<\/a> and lies about
\n100 million light years distant toward the constellation of the Fish
\n(Pisces<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Tomorrow’s picture: <\/b>aurora below<\/a> <\/p>\n

<<\/a>
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\n| ><\/a><\/p>\n

\n Authors & editors: <\/b>
\nRobert Nemiroff<\/a>
\n(MTU<\/a>) &
\nJerry Bonnell<\/a> (UMCP<\/a>)
NASA Official: <\/b> Amber Straughn
\nSpecific rights apply<\/a>.
NASA Web Privacy<\/a>,
\nAccessibility<\/a>,
\nNotices<\/a>;
A service of:<\/b>
\nASD<\/a> at
\nNASA<\/a> \/
\nGSFC<\/a>,
\n
NASA Science Activation<\/a>
\n
&<\/b> Michigan Tech. U.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"APOD: 2026 July 12 \u2013 Galaxy NGC 474: Shells and Star Streams Discover the cosmos! Each day a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":581668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[270],"tags":[18,3094,19,17,247248,133,15733,451],"class_list":["post-581667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-eire","tag-galaxies","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-ngc-474","tag-science","tag-shells","tag-space"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116906546865961394","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=581667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/581667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/581668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=581667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=581667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=581667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}