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. 2026 February 4 [2]A spiral galaxy is shown that seems to have rings in place of spiral arms. The outer ring is blue and filled with stars, while the inner ring is more red. The center has a vertical bar. Please see the explanation for more detailed information. Spiral Galaxy NGC 1512: Wide Field Image Credit & Copyright: [3]Daniel Stern Explanation: Most galaxies don't have any rings -- why does this galaxy have three? To begin, a ring that's near [4]NGC 1512's center -- and so hard to see here -- is the [5]nuclear ring which glows brightly with recently formed [6]stars. Next out is a ring of stars and [7]dust appearing both red and blue, called, [8]counter-intuitively, the inner ring. This [9]inner ring connects ends of a diffuse [10]central bar of stars that runs horizontally across the galaxy. Farthest out in this wide field image is a ragged structure that might be considered an outer ring. This outer ring appears spiral-like and is dotted with [11]clusters of bright blue stars. All these ring structures are thought to be affected by [12]NGC 1512's own gravitational asymmetries in a drawn-out process called [13]secular [14]evolution. The featured image was captured last month from a telescope at [15]Deep Sky Chile in [16]Chile. Tomorrow's picture: open space __________________________________________________________________ [17]< | [18]Archive | [19]Submissions | [20]Index | [21]Search | [22]Calendar | [23]RSS | [24]Education | [25]About APOD | [26]Discuss | [27]> __________________________________________________________________ Authors & editors: [28]Robert Nemiroff ([29]MTU) & [30]Jerry Bonnell ([31]UMCP) NASA Official: Amber Straughn [32]Specific rights apply. [33]NASA Web Privacy, [34]Accessibility, [35]Notices; A service of: [36]ASD at [37]NASA / [38]GSFC, [39]NASA Science Activation & [40]Michigan Tech. U. References 1. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 2. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/2602/NGC1512_stern_6214.jpg 3. https://www.instagram.com/messierchaser/ 4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NGC_1512 5. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap170710.html 6. https://science.nasa.gov/universe/stars/ 7. https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/d/Dust+Grain 8. https://ru.fishki.net/picsw/112007/29/ugol/ugol_012.jpg 9. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap220508.html 10. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap221016.html 11. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_cluster 12. https://esawebb.org/images/weic2403i/ 13. https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/s/Secular+Evolution 14. https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2004ARA&A..42..603K/abstract 15. https://youtu.be/i-qdANr8z3Y 16. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chile 17. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260203.html 18. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html 19. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/apsubmit2015.html 20. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/aptree.html 21. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/apod/apod_search 22. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/calendar/allyears.html 23. https://apod.com/feed.rss 24. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/edlinks.html 25. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html 26. https://asterisk.apod.com/discuss_apod.php?date=260204 27. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap260205.html 28. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/faculty/Nemiroff.html 29. http://www.phy.mtu.edu/ 30. https://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/htmltest/jbonnell/www/bonnell.html 31. http://www.astro.umd.edu/ 32. https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/lib/about_apod.html#srapply 33. https://www.nasa.gov/about/highlights/HP_Privacy.html 34. https://www.nasa.gov/general/accessibility/ 35. https://www.nasa.gov/privacy/ 36. https://astrophysics.gsfc.nasa.gov/ 37. https://www.nasa.gov/ 38. https://www.nasa.gov/centers/goddard/ 39. https://science.nasa.gov/learners 40. http://www.mtu.edu/