Ripples and Shells

Eso_potw2001a_1024

eso_potw2001a January 6th, 2020

Credit: ESO

Compared to their more intricate spiral cousins, elliptical galaxies resemble soft, hazy clouds. These galaxies have smooth, undefined boundaries, and bright cores surrounded by a fuzzy, diffuse glow. However, looks can be deceiving. At least 10% of ellipticals extend much further out into the cosmos than you might expect, and possess a range of far finer structures than first meets the eye — features such as loops and shells.  Located around 100 million light-years away in the constellation of Pisces (The Fish), the galaxy to the upper-left of this image is named NGC 474. It is a stunning example of a shell elliptical galaxy; enormous wispy tails flick around the galaxy’s main body, while the inner structure is formed of a series of nested concentric rings. In fact, the full extent of the galaxy cannot even be contained in this field of view. The tendril-like outer regions of NGC 474 billow and wisp away like smoke, extending outwards for large distances from the galaxy’s main bulk. Astronomers are unsure why some galaxies take on this kind of appearance and structure, but they believe it concerns gravity — namely, how nearby galaxies gravitationally interact with one another. It is possible that the spiral galaxy to the lower-right, NGC 470, has been tugging on its larger friend for billions of years, causing density waves to reshape its structure.  This galaxy was observed as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems programme, an outreach initiative to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects using ESO telescopes for the purposes of education and public outreach. The programme makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations. All data collected may also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to astronomers through ESO’s science archive.

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2001a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 470 NGC 474
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Eso_potw2001a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 1h 19m 55.7s
DEC = 3° 24’ 34.1”
Orientation
North is 45.1° CCW
Field of View
7.3 x 7.2 arcminutes
Constellation
Pisces

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red VLT (FORS2) Optical (R) 655.0 nm
Green VLT (FORS2) Optical (v) 557.0 nm
Blue VLT (FORS2) Optical (b) 440.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Eso_potw2001a_1280
×
ID
potw2001a
Subject Category
C.5.1.1  
Subject Name
NGC 470, NGC 474
Credits
ESO
Release Date
2020-01-06T06:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/potw2001a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope
Instrument
FORS2, FORS2, FORS2
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
R, v, b
Central Wavelength
655, 557, 440
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
19.9820178234, 3.40947233
Reference Dimension
1744.0, 1726.0
Reference Pixel
872.0, 863.0
Scale
-6.99468169669e-05, 6.99468169669e-05
Rotation
45.07999999999997
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
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
potw2001a
Metadata Date
2023-10-11T09:18:37.625402
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

×

There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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