Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer. Because astronomers rely on an accurate knowledge of galaxy properties to investigate a wide range of problems, like galaxy and quasar evolution and the nature of dark matter , answers to simple questions like this are key. As expected, dust lanes in the foreground galaxy seem to be associated with spiral arms. But surprisingly , many dust regions are not completely opaque and the dust is more smoothly distributed than anticipated .
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