Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Leo (Leo)  ·  Contains:  IC 2745  ·  IC 2762  ·  IC 2763  ·  Leo Triplet  ·  M 65  ·  M 66  ·  NGC 3623  ·  NGC 3627  ·  NGC 3628
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Leo Triplet, Dave Erickson
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Leo Triplet

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Leo Triplet, Dave Erickson
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Leo Triplet

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Description

Leo Triplet: This group of three galaxies located about 35million light years distant, is comprised of M65, M66, and the hamburger NGC 3628.

M65: Discovered by Charles Messier and included in his catalog. M65 is low in dust and gas thus there is little star formation in it.As expected the ratio of old stars to new stars is correspondingly quite high. M65 appears to me to have a have a central bar, but difficult to tell because it is confused by the oblique angle of the galaxy. This may have been formed by tidal disruption as the galaxies appear to have interacted in the past.

M66: Discovered by Charles Messier in 1780, who described it as "very long and very faint". M66 has a morphological classification of SABb, indicating a spiral shape with a weak bar feature and loosely wound arms. M66 is receding from us It lies 31 million light-years distant and is about 95 thousand light-years. M66 has dark knots that are striking striking dust lanes and bright star clusters along whispy spiral arms. As of 2018, five supernovae have been observed in M66.

Gravitational encounter with NGC 3628 has resulted in an extremely high central mass concentration. This likely caused the whispy spiral arms that beautifly embrace the central core of the galaxy. These dust lane structures are noted in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies.

NGC 3628: The Hamburger Galaxy is a potentially barred spiral galaxy about 35 million light-years distant. Discovered by William Herschel in 1784. It has an approximately 300,000 light-years long tidal tail. To my eyes this tail, which extends out of frame in this image, appears to be another galaxy being stripped and stretched by gravitational interactions.

NGC 3628 may be a Barred Spiral as well as there is an x-shaped buldge apparent in multiple wavelengths, and visible in this image. From computer simulations it is noted that bars often form from interactions and mergers, NGC3628 is known to be interacting with its neighbors.

This would make this a Trio of Barred Spiral Galaxies...

This image was taken over several nights using a 6" F/6.45 Melior Apo, and a QHY 600 Pro with Astrodon RGB, Gain at 56 and offset at 64.

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