                        Astronomy Picture of the Day

    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 30
   A spiral galaxy is shown with an unusual feature. Faint wisps of stars
   are seen both above and below the galaxy. A wisp above appears like an
     umbrella. Please see the explanation for more detailed information.

                        NGC 4651: The Umbrella Galaxy
                Image Credit: Rabeea Alkuwari & Anas Almajed

   Explanation: It's raining stars. What appears to be a giant cosmic
   umbrella is now known to be a tidal stream of stars stripped from a
   small satellite galaxy. The main galaxy, spiral galaxy NGC 4651, is
   about the size of our Milky Way, while its stellar parasol appears to
   extend some 100 thousand light-years above this galaxy's bright disk. A
   small galaxy was likely torn apart by repeated encounters as it swept
   back and forth on eccentric orbits through NGC 4651. The remaining
   stars will surely fall back and become part of a combined larger galaxy
   over the next few million years. The featured deep image was captured
   in long exposures from Saudi Arabia. The Umbrella Galaxy lies about 50
   million light-years distant toward the well-groomed northern
   constellation of Berenice's Hair (Coma Berenices).

                     APOD in a Modern Format StellarSnap
                    Tomorrow's picture: eye sky a dragon
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