Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  NGC 4627  ·  NGC 4631  ·  NGC 4656
Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Whale & Hockey Stick, rflinn68
Whale & Hockey Stick
Powered byPixInsight

Whale & Hockey Stick

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Whale & Hockey Stick, rflinn68
Whale & Hockey Stick
Powered byPixInsight

Whale & Hockey Stick

Equipment

Loading...

Acquisition details

Loading...

Description

NGC 4631 is a big beautiful spiral galaxy seen edge-on (top right) only 25 million light-years away towards the small northern constellation Canes Venatici. This galaxy's slightly distorted wedge shape suggests to some a cosmic herring and to others the popular moniker of The Whale Galaxy. Either way, it is similar in size to our own Milky Way. The Whale's dark interstellar dust clouds, yellowish core, and young blue star clusters are easy to spot. A companion galaxy, the small elliptical NGC 4627, appears above the Whale Galaxy. At the lower left is another distorted galaxy, the hockey stick-shaped NGC 4656. The distortions and mingling trails of gas detected at other wavelengths suggest that all three galaxies have had close encounters with each other in their past. The Whale Galaxy is also known to have spouted a halo of hot gas glowing in x-rays.-NASA

Comments

Revisions

  • Whale & Hockey Stick, rflinn68
    Original
  • Final
    Whale & Hockey Stick, rflinn68
    B

Sky plot

Sky plot

Histogram

Whale & Hockey Stick, rflinn68