Galaxy NGC 6744

Galaxy NGC 7644, a spiral galaxy like our own Milky Way, is shown spinning its way through space in this image from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer telescope. NASA shut down GALEX Friday, Jun 28, 2013, after a decade of successful operations.

How big is your reality this holiday week? Stretch that picture - however expansive - by thinking about a galaxy so huge that NASA calls it our Milky Way's big brother. NASA posted this picture of Galaxy NGC 6744

Monday as a farewell to the telescope that took it. The space agency turned off the Galaxy Evolution Explorer telescope June 28 after a decade of amazing discoveries.

NGC 6744 is a spiral disc 175,000 light years across. That's nearly twice as wide as the Milky Way's 100,000-light-year span. Its "fluffy arms" are proof, NASA says, that star formation takes place on the outer edges of galaxies, not just near the center. NGC 6744 is in the constellation Pavo 30 million light years from Earth. Footnote: A light year is a measure of the distance light could travel in a vacuum in one year's time - about 6 trillion miles.

Another way of thinking about NGC 6744's size is to look at the galaxy's upper right arm. That blob is another galaxy called NGC 6744A.

The

used its ultraviolet camera to record thousands of images like this in its decade of operations. It was so successful its mission was extended three times beyond the original termination date, and it was loaned to Cal Tech in Pasadena, Calif., after that for a year of privately sponsored study before being decommissioned. More images from that year of study will be released over the coming months.

The satellite containing GALEX will orbit for another 65 years before eventually crashing back on Earth.