NGC 4631 Whale Galaxy (Mau_Bard)

NGC 4631 Whale Galaxy

Due to enduring bad weather, I have currently the "opportunity" to dig in my backlog of historical data, and here we are, with this one. The quality of initial data was questionable, and it was fun to correct funny gradients, vignetting, et cetera, as a Pixinsight training session.

NGC 4631
Other designation: Whale Galaxy, UGC 7865, PGC 42637, Arp 281, Caldwell 32
Distance: 30Mly

NGC 4631 is a barred spiral galaxy in the constellation Canes Venatici. This galaxy's slightly distorted wedge shape gives it the appearance of a herring or a whale, hence its nickname. Because this nearby galaxy is seen edge-on from earth, professional astronomers observe this galaxy to better understand the gas and stars located outside the plane of the galaxy.

NGC 4631 contains a central starburst, which is a region of intense star formation. The strong star formation is evident in the emission from ionized hydrogen and interstellar dust heated by the stars formed in the starburst. The most massive stars born in star formation regions only burn hydrogen gas through fusion for a short period of time, after which they explode as supernovae. So many supernovae have exploded in the center of NGC 4631 that they are blowing gas out of the plane of the galaxy. This superwind can be seen in X-rays and in spectral line emission. The gas from this superwind has produced a giant, diffuse corona of hot, X-ray emitting gas around the whole galaxy.

NGC 4631 has a nearby companion dwarf elliptical galaxy, NGC 4627, included in the closeup here. NGC 4627 and NGC 4631 together were listed in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies as an example of a "double galaxy" or a galaxy pair.

NGC 4631 and NGC 4627 are part of the NGC 4631 Group, a group of galaxies that also includes the interacting galaxies NGC 4656 and NGC 4657, visible in the large field enclosed here. However, exact group identification is problematic because this galaxy and others lie in a part of the sky that is relatively crowded. Estimates of the number of galaxies in this group range from 5 to 27, and different studies identify very different galaxy sets for this group.

Final
Original
B

B

Title: Large Field

Uploaded: ...

Suburban Astrophotography
Broadband under Bortle 7/8/9
Light Polluted skies
Imaged with N.I.N.A.
N.I.N.A. Users
Optolong L-Pro filter
Musical Imagers
ZWO ASI 2600MC PRO
Imagers of Italy
PixInsight Addicts

	Distinct awarded users	Total awarded images
Image of the day
Top picks
Top pick nominations

	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
Artificial satellite

	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

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	Advanced success
Started	...
PixInsight job	3IZRF0YVY1UXWFM9YM7MR1T81QH7KZYV
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	12h42m06s.257
RA (top/left)	12h40m39s.837
RA (top/right)	12h43m33s.210
RA (bottom/right)	12h43m33s.278
RA (bottom/left)	12h40m39s.297

Dec (center)	+32°32′21″.30
Dec (top/left)	+32°18′07″.66
Dec (top/right)	+32°18′11″.81
Dec (bottom/right)	+32°46′31″.48
Dec (bottom/left)	+32°46′21″.12

AstroBin

AstroBin

Image Index:

Contribution Index (beta):