M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral (Jason Guenzel)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Leo (Leo) · Contains: M 96 · NGC 3368

Image of the day 05/08/2018

M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral, Jason Guenzel

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M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral

Image of the day 05/08/2018

Powered byPixInsight

M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral

M96 lies about 35 million light years away in Leo. The bright inner core is slightly displaced from the outer extended halo. This asymmetric nature hints at past gravitational interactions with neighbors. The inner core is significantly brighter than the outer diffuse arms and a more notable feature is the bright blue ring of starburst activity that surrounds this core.

One interesting aspect of this image is the appearance of a sizable edge-on background galaxy situated behind M96’s faint arm (near the top of the galaxy in this image). This galaxy is 15-20 times more distant by some estimates and shines bright enough to be clearly seen through the foreground stars and dust.

This image was a long time in the making. The RGB data needed a lot of help, but the weather was not allowing me to capture more. So, at some point I called it off and processed what I had.

Enjoy!

Cloudy Nights
ZWO ASI1600MM/QHY163M
Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope (SCT) Imagers

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Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	2039939
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	n/a

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Image of the day 05/08/2018

M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral

Image of the day 05/08/2018

M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral

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Image of the day 05/08/2018

M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral

Image of the day 05/08/2018

M96 - An Asymmetric Spiral

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