Galaxy with warped dust lane

Image showing a sky field in the southern constellation Hydra (The Water-snake) that includes the peculiar spiral galaxy ESO 510-13 . It resembles the famous "Sombrero" galaxy, but its equatorial dust plane is pronouncedly warped. The velocity is 3300 km/sec, the distance is about 170 million light-years and the size is 100,000 light-years. The fact that the dust band and the rest of this galaxy are not well aligned is a clear sign that the former was acquired recently (in astronomical terms). The dust band is still in the process of achieving a more stable state by becoming flat. It is not obvious how it was formed; it may for instance be the result of a merger with a gas-rich dwarf galaxy and the elliptical galaxy. In any case, this is a most interesting object that will undoubtedly soon be studied in more detail, with the VLT and other large telescopes. The photo displays a very large number of fainter objects near this galaxy. Many of these are likely to be globular clusters of stars associated with the galaxy; others are background galaxies. It would indeed appear that ESO 510-13 is located right in front of one or more, distant clusters of galaxies. This three-colour composite (BVI) was obtained with VLT ANTU and FORS in the morning of March 15, 1999. Field size: 6.8x6.8 arcmin 2 ; North is up and East is to the left.

Crédit:

ESO

À propos de l'image

Identification:eso9924e
Type:Observation
Date de publication:30 avril 1999
Communiqués de presse en rapport:eso9924
Taille:2048 x 2049 px

À propos de l'objet

Nom:ESO 510-13
Type:Local Universe : Galaxy : Type : Spiral
Distance:150 million années lumière
Constellation:Hydra
Catégorie:Galaxies

Formats des images

Grand JPEG
3,2 Mio
JPEG taille écran
356,7 Kio

Fonds d'écran

1024x768
383,9 Kio
1280x1024
755,1 Kio
1600x1200
1,3 Mio
1920x1200
1,7 Mio
2048x1536
2,6 Mio

Coordinates

Position (RA):13 55 4.16
Position (Dec):-26° 46' 46.48"
Field of view:6.83 x 6.83 arcminutes
Orientation:North is 0.1° right of vertical

Couleurs & filtres

DomaineTélescope
Visible
B
Very Large Telescope
FORS1
Visible
V
Very Large Telescope
FORS1
Infrarouge
I
Very Large Telescope
FORS1