Archivo de imágenes de Hubble

Extraña pareja de galaxias en un viaje espacial

Two very different galaxies drift through space together in this image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The peculiar galaxy pair is called Arp 116.Arp 116 is composed of a giant elliptical galaxy known as Messier 60 (or M60) and a much smaller spiral galaxy, NGC 4647.M60 i...

Fecha
Jan 1, 2012
Misión
Hubble Space Telescope
ID de archivo
hubblesite-images-2012-38-3102-image
Por

Two very different galaxies drift through space together in this image taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope. The peculiar galaxy pair is called Arp 116.

Arp 116 is composed of a giant elliptical galaxy known as Messier 60 (or M60) and a much smaller spiral galaxy, NGC 4647.

M60 is the third brightest galaxy in the Virgo cluster of galaxies, a collection of more than 1,300 galaxies. M60 has a diameter of 120,000 light-years, and a mass of about one trillion times that of the Sun. A huge black hole of 4.5 billion solar masses lies at its center, one of the most massive black holes ever found.

The faint bluish spiral galaxy NGC 4647 is about two-thirds of M60 in size and much lower in mass – roughly the size of our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Astronomers have long tried to determine whether these two galaxies are actually interacting. Although looking at them from Earth they overlap, there is no evidence of new star formation, which would be one of the clearest signs that the two galaxies are indeed interacting. However, recent studies of very detailed Hubble images suggest the onset of some tidal interaction between the two.

M60 lies roughly 54 million light-years away from Earth; NGC 4647 is about 63 million light-years away.

This image combines exposures from Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys and Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2.

Credits

NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage (STScI/AURA)-ESA/Hubble Collaboration

Detalles de la imagen

About The Object
Object NameArp 116
Object DescriptionElliptical and Spiral Galaxy Pair
R.A. Position12h 43m 36s.10
Dec. Position+11° 34' 01''.99
ConstellationVirgo
DistanceM60 is roughly 54 million light-years (16 megaparsecs) distant. NGC 4647 is 63 million light-years (19 megaparsecs) distant.
About The Data
Data DescriptionThe image was created from Hubble data from the following proposals: : PI: J. Tonry (University of Hawaii); : PI: P. Cote (Dominion Astrophysical Observatory); and : PI: G. Fabbiano (Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics).
InstrumentHST>WFPC2, and HST>ACS/WFC
FiltersACS/WFC: F475W (B) and F850LP (z) WFPC2: F555W (V) and F814W (I)
About The Image
Color InfoThe images are composites of separate exposures made by the ACS/WFC and WFPC2 instruments on the Hubble Space Telescope. Four filters were used to sample broad and narrow wavelength ranges for the UVIS image. The colors result from assigning different hues (colors) to each monochromatic image. In this case, the assigned colors are: Blue: ACS/WFC F475W (B) + WFPC2 F555W (V) Red: F850LP (z)+ WFPC2 F814W (I)

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