A remarkable spiral galaxy in Hydra.

NGC 3621 is a spiral galaxy of morphological type SAd about 22 M light years away in the constellation of Hydra, The Sea Snake.

With an angular size of 10.96 x 4.79 m and visual magnitude of 10.1 this beutifull galaxy can be observed with a moderate-sized telescope about 3 degrees East of 3.5 magnitude star Xi Hydrae.

NGC 3621 is considered to a be a field spiral galaxy. A field galaxy is one that does not belong to a larger galaxy group or cluster. Roughly 80% of all galaxies located within 16 M light years of the Milky Way are in groups or clusters of galaxies.

NGC 3621 is also a pure-disc galaxy. Most of the spiral galaxies show a flat disc with spiral arms permeated by dark lanes of material, where young stars form, and a large group of old stars packed in a spheroidal region in it´s center. NGC 3621 lacks this central bulge.

Even in the absence of a substantial bulge, recent studies show that NGC 3621 has both an active nuclei that hosts a supermassive black hole and also nuclear star clusters with two low-mass black holes with masses few thousand times the mass of the sun.

The observational raw data used to create this portrait was obtained from the European Southern Observatory (ESO).

The instrument used by ESO in February 2008 to take the data was the Wide Field Imager, a focal reducer-type camera permanently mounted at the Cassegrain focus of the 2.2-m MPG/ESO telescope at La Silla, Chile, with a field of view of 34'x33'.

The final cropped image is a combination of NB and RGB data. I processed 20 WFI MEF files created by ESO with different filters:

BB#B/123_ESO878 4 x 300s

BB#V/89_ESO843 4 x 300s

BB#RC/162_ESO844 4 x 300s

NB#HALPHA/7_ESO856 4 x 300s

NB#OIII/8_ESO859 4 x 300 s

IRAF with ESO WFI and MSCRED were used to first reduce the original data, then Pixinsght for linear and non linear processing and GIMP for retouching and color enhance.

Text and data sources:

Wikipedia

ESO

CDS Strasbourg

✨ NGC 3358 - Dancing Galaxies in Hydra ✨

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Behold the cosmic dance of NGC 3358 and its celestial companions, a spectacular pair of interacting galaxies in the constellation Hydra. These distant galaxies, shaped by gravitational forces, offer a glimpse into the complex choreography of galactic evolution.

🔭 Target: NGC 3358 (Interacting Galaxy Pair)

📍 Location: Constellation Hydra, approximately 100 million light-years away

🌟 Apparent Magnitude: ~11.5

📐 Apparent Size: ~3 arcminutes

About the Region:

The larger spiral galaxy displays beautifully warped arms, a sign of tidal interactions caused by its smaller companion. These interactions trigger star formation, evident in the glowing regions of blue and pink scattered throughout the galaxies. The surrounding star field adds depth, showcasing the universe’s vastness.

🎨 Processing Details:

This image captures the subtle details of galactic interaction, from the faint tidal tails to the intricate structure of the spiral arms. The processing enhances the contrast between the galaxies and the rich background of stars.

Lights: 18x300" Red, 18x300" Blu, 18x300" Green, 18x300" Luminance

Instruments: Telescope Planewave CDK24, Camera QHY 600M, Filters Astrodon

Date: 16/04/2023

#NGC3358 #InteractingGalaxies #HydraConstellation #Astrophotography #DeepSkyImaging

This 'swirling' galaxy is MCG-01-24-014. It is located about 275 million light years from Earth within the constellation Hydra. The image potw2351a (codenamed according to the ESA Hubble catalogue), was published on 18 December 2023 at 06:00 UTC. In addition to possessing a crisp, practically perfect spiral shape, MCG-01-244 has an extremely energetic core, known as an active galactic nucleus (AGN), which is why it is called an 'active' galaxy. Specifically, it is classified as a Type 2 Seyfert galaxy. The light emissions of type 2 Seyfert galaxies are particularly associated with specific so-called 'forbidden' emissions.

Forbidden emission lines, therefore, are spectral emission lines that should not exist according to certain rules of quantum physics. But quantum physics is complex and, some of the rules used to predict it, use assumptions that fit the laboratory conditions here on Earth. According to these rules, this emission is 'forbidden', so improbable as to be ignored. But in space, in the midst of an incredibly energetic galactic core, these assumptions no longer hold and the 'forbidden' light has a chance to shine towards us.

This image was reconstructed using our artificial intelligence model. The file is available at 320 millions of pixels for download at a resolution of 16000x20000 pixels.

Credits: original image courtesy ESA/Hubble & NASA, C. Kilpatrick. Full AI processing by PipploIMP.

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