Ballet of interacting galaxies

Eso_ngc1532_1024

eso_ngc1532 December 3rd, 2009

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

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.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/ngc1532/

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 1531 NGC 1532
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Galaxy > Type > Lenticular
Eso_ngc1532_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 4h 12m 4.3s
DEC = -32° 52’ 27.1”
Orientation
North is 45.2° CCW
Field of View
12.6 x 11.5 arcminutes
Constellation
Eridanus

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red ESO-Danish-1.54m (DFOSC) Optical (R) -
Green ESO-Danish-1.54m (DFOSC) Optical (V) -
Blue ESO-Danish-1.54m (DFOSC) Optical (B) -
Eso_ngc1532_1280
×
ID
ngc1532
Subject Category
C.5.1.1   C.5.1.3  
Subject Name
NGC 1531, NGC 1532
Credits
ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/R.Gendler and J.-E. Ovaldsen
Release Date
2009-12-03T23:20:30
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/ngc1532/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Distance in light years from NED.
Facility
Danish 1.54-metre telescope, Danish 1.54-metre telescope, Danish 1.54-metre telescope
Instrument
DFOSC, DFOSC, DFOSC
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
R, V, B
Central Wavelength
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
63.018074, -32.874204
Reference Dimension
1920.0, 1744.0
Reference Pixel
1019.43631065, 859.348371449
Scale
-0.00010951073, 0.00010951073
Rotation
45.24758719752
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
ngc1532
Metadata Date
2009-02-02T09:58:22+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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