Arp 23 - NGC 4618
This mess of a diffuse single-armed barred dwarf spiral galaxy may not have the symmetry one tends to gravitate towards. However, it's certainly full of character. This galaxy may be in the same category as the Large Magellanic Cloud, but much more defined. This galaxy may seem very different given its Arp designation, but its morphology isn't that unique. This galaxy is interacting with its similar neighbour NGC 4625. The two are connected by a stream of hydrogen gas, but few stars lie in the stream, so it is incredibly faint.
In true colour, those green puffs of gas would appear pinkish red. Maybe someone will feel inclined to look at this galaxy with narrowband imagery one day. One of the channels had a chip gap, which you may be able to spot running diagonally down the centre of the galaxy as an area of cyan and red stars. I removed a lot of tiny cosmic rays. Data is missing in the corners for the blue channel, so the colour there is a much smaller range. At the moment I'm pretty much just going through the Arp catalogue, which is full of interesting galaxies, and seeing if Hubble's taken a look at them.
I am eternally grateful that all of this scientific data is publicly available and I fear that I'm taking it for granted. A day may come when that is no longer the case. I think it's pretty incredible that we have so much data available to us. Thank you!
This image is possible thanks to the following proposals: Progenitor Masses for Every Nearby Historic Core-Collapse Supernova TRGB Distances to the Edge Between the Local Sheet and Virgo Infall: Last of the Low Hanging Fruit
Morphological type: SBc
Red: ACS/WFC F814W Green: ACS/WFC F606W
Blue: ACS/WFC F435WRelevante Bilder
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NGC 4618NGC 4618 = IC 3667 = Arp 23 ist eine Balken-Spiralgalaxie vom Hubble-Typ SBm im Sternbild Jagdhunde am Nordsternhimmel. Sie ist schätzungsweise 26 Millionen Lichtjahre von der Milchstraße entfernt und hat einen Durchmesser von rund 30.000 Lichtjahren. Gemeinsam mit NGC 4625 bildet sie das interagierende Galaxienpaar Holm 438 oder KPG 349. Im selben Himmelsareal befinden sich u. a. die Galaxien NGC 4655, IC 3713, IC 3723, IC 3726. .. weiterlesen