This pair of galaxies is located just over 0.5 billion light years away in the constellation of Lyra at a declination of +43 degrees.
The larger galaxy at lower right is UGC 11185, while the smaller galaxy at upper left is LEDA 61662. The larger galaxy spans 45 arc-seconds in our apparent view, which corresponds to a Milky Way size diameter of 120,000 light years. Both galaxies are classified as Seyfert galaxies.
The Hubble image of the mouseover shows the green cosmic feature known as a voorwerp (Dutch for “object”). Voorwerpjes are giant clouds of gas ionized by a central active nucleus. It is believed that they are the result of quasar activity. Except for a hint of green, my image does not capture the voorwerp very well. It is tough to image gas clouds that are over 0.5 billion light years away with a backyard telescope. My voorwerp galaxy collection is
here.
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