Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Leo (Leo)  ·  Contains:  M 65  ·  M 66  ·  NGC 3623  ·  NGC 3627  ·  NGC 3628
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Leo Triplet with Turandot transiting M65, Smoke_Rise_Observatory
Leo Triplet with Turandot transiting M65
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Leo Triplet with Turandot transiting M65

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Leo Triplet with Turandot transiting M65, Smoke_Rise_Observatory
Leo Triplet with Turandot transiting M65
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Leo Triplet with Turandot transiting M65

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Description

Wikipedia & Messier-Objects.com

The Leo Triplet (also known as the M66 Group) is a small group of galaxies about 35 million light-years away in the constellation Leo. This galaxy group consists of the spiral galaxies M65 (upper right), M66 (lower right), and NGC 3628 (left).

Messier 66, the largest and brightest member of the Leo Triplet, is roughly 95 light years across. Messier 65 is an intermediate spiral galaxy, poor in dust and gas, and shows little evidence of star formation. NGC 3628 is an unbarred spiral galaxy. Seen edge-on, the galaxy appears transected by a broad band of dust that stretches along its outer edge, hiding the young stars in the galaxy’s spiral arms.

The three galaxies in the M66 Group have all been affected by gravitational interactions with each other. This is evident in the deformed, drawn out spiral arms of M66 that are experiencing a high rate of star forming activity and in the warped, inflated disk of NGC 3628. With a prominent tidal tail consisting mainly of young blue stars, NGC 3628 seems to be the most affected of the three, while M65 appears to have suffered the least damage from the interaction. The tidal tail of NGC 3628 spans over 300,000 light years, but is very faint and does not always appear in images of the galaxy.

Of particular interest in this image is the transit of asteroid (530) Turandot across M65, with the path over several hours captured in red, blue and green sub-exposures.

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Leo Triplet with Turandot transiting M65, Smoke_Rise_Observatory