NGC 4631 - The Whale Galaxy (Hap Griffin)

Celestial hemisphere: Northern · Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn) · Contains: NGC 4627 · NGC 4631

NGC 4631 - The Whale Galaxy, Hap Griffin

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NGC 4631 - The Whale Galaxy

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NGC 4631 - The Whale Galaxy

Here is NGC 4631, otherwise known informally as the "Whale Galaxy". This is a typical barred spiral galaxy in the constellation of Canes Venetici, but we see it from a nearly edge on angle, so the familiar circular spiral structure looks like an elongated oval, and in this particular case, resembles a whale. The bright orange glow from its center is a starburst region evident by strong ionized hydrogen emissions. The stars formed in such a region are typically short lived, burning only hydrogen during their relatively short lives which end in supernova explosions. Many supernovae have been observed within this galaxy over the years. Just above the galaxy is a dwarf elliptical companion galaxy, NGC 4627, caught in the gravitational pull of the whale. The pair lie at a distance of 30 million light years.

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Distribution of astrophotographers

This table shows the number of distinct astrophotographers who have been assigned and IOTD/TP award compared to the total number of images awarded.
	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

Distribution of subject types

This table shows the distribution of awards per subject type, compared to the popularity of images of that subject type.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Deep sky
Solar system
Extremely wide field
Star trails
Northern lights
Noctilucent clouds
Landscape

Distribution of data sources

This table shows the distribution of awards per data source, compared to the popularity of images acquired from that data source.
	Image of the day	Top pick	Top pick nominations	Total submitted
Backyard
Traveller
Own remote observatory
Amateur hosting facility
Public amaeteur data
Professional, scientific grade data
Mix of multiple sources
Other
Unknown

The “AstroBin Image of the Day and Top Picks”, or IOTD/TP, is a long-running system to promote beautiful, interesting, peculiar, or otherwise amazing astrophotographs, with a focus on technical excellence. Learn more.

Submitted The date and time when you submitted this image for IOTD/TP consideration.	...
Views by Submitters (available since September 19th, 2023) Every image is assigned to 50% of available Submitters. In the event that at least 80% of them don't view the image before its time in the IOTD/TP process expires, it's assigned to the other 50% of Submitters and the process begins anew.
Promotions by Submitters When 3 distinct Submitters promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for Top Pick status. This requirement, in addition to anonymization of images and distribution to only a subset of them, prevents biases and ensures that the best images are selected.
Promotions by Reviewers When 3 distinct Reviewers promote the image, it moves on to the next stage of the process: evaluation for IOTD status.
Early dismissal Staff members have a lot of images to inspect on a daily basis, and they can dismiss images if they believe they don't meet the requirements for IOTD/TP selection. If an image is dismissed 5 times, it's removed from the process. This streamlines the process and ensures that any bias present in promotions could be overruled by other staff members.

Status	Basic success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	1508856
PixInsight job	n/a
PixInsight queue size	n/a
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NGC 4631 - The Whale Galaxy

NGC 4631 - The Whale Galaxy

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NGC 4631 - The Whale Galaxy

NGC 4631 - The Whale Galaxy

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