First VLT colour photo of a strange galaxy

Eso_eso9825a_1024

eso_eso9825a June 23rd, 1998

Credit: ESO

This is a colour photo from the VLT that shows NGC 4650A, a member of the so-called Centaurus chain of galaxies in the southern constellation of that name. NGC 4650A is a complex system that is located at a distance of about 50 Megaparsec (165 million light-years). As it is clear from this high-resolution picture, there are two main components, a lenticular-shaped galaxy (of type S0), surrounded by a knotty extended ring-like distribution of stars, dust and gas, nearly perpendicular to each other. This is a combination of three 10-min B (blue) exposures (seeing 0.68 - 0.82 arcsec), two 10-min V (green-yellow) exposures (0.55 and 0.77 arcsec), and one 4-min and one 10-min R (red) exposures (0.55 and 0.52 arcsec) with the VLT Test Camera. Individual frames were flat-fielded and cleaned for cosmics, combined and deconvolved with the Richardson-Lucy algorithm to produce a final FWHM = 0.53 arcsec before colour combination. The field measures 1.5 x 1.5 arcmin. North is to the upper left; East is to the lower left.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso9825a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 4650A
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Ring
Eso_eso9825a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 44m 49.0s
DEC = -40° 42’ 49.4”
Orientation
North is 45.8° CCW
Field of View
1.2 x 1.4 arcminutes
Constellation
Centaurus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red VLT (None) Optical (R) -
Green VLT (None) Optical (V) -
Blue VLT (None) Optical (B) -
Eso_eso9825a_1280
×
ID
eso9825a
Subject Category
C.5.1.5  
Subject Name
NGC 4650A
Credits
ESO
Release Date
1998-06-23T00:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso9825a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Distance in light years from NED
Facility
Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope
Instrument
None, None, None
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
R, V, B
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
840, 600, 600
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
191.203972066, -40.7137257943
Reference Dimension
2152.0, 2456.0
Reference Pixel
1080.58541092, 1151.43373923
Scale
-9.55565483104e-06, 9.55565483104e-06
Rotation
45.76913011945004
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
http://www.eso.org/
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso9825a
Metadata Date
2009-02-04T14:19:23+01:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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