In today's image, we see a giant spiral galaxy about 8 times the diameter of our own Milky Way. It is named after Vera Ruby who studied spiral galaxies and was the first to determine that much of the mass in the galaxies and the universe must be in the form of dark matter which is only seen through its gravitational effects.

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This Podcast is an authorized New Media Mirror Site for APOD. You can access the image and website directly at: Astronomy Picture of the Day. You can use the archive link below the image to select the photo corresponding to the date of this podcast.

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