Ballet of interacting galaxies

The pair of galaxies NGC 1531/2, engaged in a spirited waltz, is located about 70 million light-years away towards the southern constellation Eridanus (The River). The deformed foreground spiral galaxy laced with dust lanes NGC 1532 is so close to its companion — the background galaxy with a bright core just above the centre of NGC 1532 — that it gets distorted: one of its spiral arms is warped and plumes of dust and gas are visible above its disc. The cosmic dance leads to another dramatic effect: a whole new generation of massive stars were born in NGC 1532 because of the interaction. They are visible as the purple objects in the spiral arms.

This exquisite image was made using the 1.5-metre Danish telescope at the ESO La Silla Observatory, Chile. It is based on data obtained through three different filters: B, V and R. The field of view is 12 x 12 arcmin.

Crédit:

ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/R.Gendler and J.-E. Ovaldsen

À propos de l'image

Identification:ngc1532
Type:Observation
Date de publication:3 décembre 2009 23:20
Taille:1920 x 1744 px

À propos de l'objet

Nom:NGC 1531, NGC 1532
Type:Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Lenticular
Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Distance:50 million années lumière
Constellation:Eridanus
Catégorie:Galaxies

Formats des images

Grand JPEG
479,8 Kio

Fonds d'écran

1024x768
132,1 Kio
1280x1024
208,8 Kio
1600x1200
310,8 Kio
1920x1200
425,4 Kio
2048x1536
514,5 Kio

Coordinates

Position (RA):4 12 4.34
Position (Dec):-32° 52' 27.13"
Field of view:12.62 x 11.46 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 45.2° left of vertical