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Arp 154, Gary Imm
Arp 154, Gary Imm

Arp 154

Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
Arp 154, Gary Imm
Arp 154, Gary Imm

Arp 154

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Description

This object is a massive lenticular galaxy located 60 million light-years away in the southern constellation of Fornax at a declination of -37 degrees. This galaxy is also known by its radio designation, Fornax A. It is the fourth brightest radio source in the sky.

The lenticular galaxy spans 12 arc-minutes, which corresponds to a diameter of 180,000 light years.

As with all lenticular galaxies, I found this one to be difficult to process. The very subtle gradient in brightness towards the outside edge of the galaxy makes it difficult to have a look which is smooth and natural, without contour bands.

My favorite aspect of this image are the large brown dust lanes that snake through the inner half of the galaxy. Such dust lanes are unusual for this type of galaxy. There are large tidal streams associated with NGC 1316 but I was not able to capture them clearly on this image. A large stream can be seen faintly extending up and to the left of the galaxy. The dust lanes and tidal streams are believed to be the result of a major collision of two gas-rich spiral galaxies many years ago that formed NGC 1316 as it appears today.

This galaxy is believed to be interacting with NGC 1317, the smaller spiral galaxy below it. Besides NGC 1317, there are two other interesting galaxies in this image. NGC 1310 is the tiny, pretty spiral galaxy on the left edge of the image, and PGC 12706 is the tiny, interesting irregular galaxy on the upper right edge of the image.

It is interesting to me how similar this galaxy is to NGC 5128 in Centaurus (Centaurus A), sharing the common traits of being a lenticular galaxy with distinctive dust lanes and a strong radio source.

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