NGC 5068

I had a difficult choice with this image, crop or not to crop. Just look at the size of that bright star, and compare it against the galaxy. It’s a small target, but I love how it hangs all alone against a backdrop of colourful stars. There is an incredible cluster of galaxies in the lower left, and they would have to be hundreds of millions of light-years away. I couldn't bring myself to crop away all that interesting stuff that makes up the field.

 

NGC 5068 is a face on-field barred spiral galaxy in the Virgo constellation. It is about 22 million light-years distant, with a diameter of 45000 light-years across its disk. Its apparent angular size is 7.48 X 6.7 arcmin. NGC 5068 is close to the celestial equator, partly visible from both hemispheres.

A supermassive black hole lies in the bar of NGC 5068. The bar structure is typically a sign that a galaxy is reaching its full maturity as a galaxy. The spiral arms surrounding the central bar contain many younger stars. These star-forming areas have a lovely red hue.

 

Thanks for looking

 

 

Done