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Anne’s Picture of the Day: Galaxy NGC 5078
read more at Anne’s Astronomy News http://annesastronomynews.com/
January 7, 2013
NGC 5078, a lenticular galaxy in Hydra
Image Credit & Copyright: Robert Gendler (http://www.robgendlerastropics.com)
NGC 5078 is a large edge-on lenticular (lens-shaped) galaxy that lies just northwest of the Southern Pinwheel Galaxy (M83), some 94 million light-years away in the constellation of Hydra, while speeding away from us at roughly 2168 kilometers per second. It is interacting with the fainter neighbouring spiral galaxy IC 879 (also known as IC 4222), which is speeding away from us at 2033 kilometers per second.
In 1999 a supernova, SN 1999cz, was discovered about 36″ northwest of the center of NGC 5078.
A huge dust lane obscures the southern part of NGC 5078. It is likely that this dust lane is the remnant of a dusty spiral galaxy which fell into it long ago. This dust lane is warped and broadened because of the tidal effects caused by the interaction with IC 879, which itself is being distorted into an S-shape by the interaction. A “bridge” of stars is linking the two galaxies.
Triggered by the interaction is a frenzied rate of star formation in IC 879, indicated by the many patches of blueish star forming regions. Such interactions between galaxies are quite common, and often lead to mergers into one large elliptical galaxy.
NGC 5078 is also an interesting galaxy due to jets of gas that are being ejected from the disk. These jets (superwinds) can only be detected through radio wavelengths of light, by radio telescopes.
In this image, South is up.
n/a
2013-01-07 12:45:09
Source: http://annesastronomynews.com/annes-picture-of-the-day-galaxy-ngc-5078/
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