Celestial hemisphere:  Northern  ·  Constellation: Canes Venatici (CVn)  ·  Contains:  NGC 4627  ·  NGC 4631  ·  NGC 4656  ·  NGC 4657  ·  Whale Galaxy
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The Whale and the Hockeystick, JohnEEvans
The Whale and the Hockeystick
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The Whale and the Hockeystick

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The Whale and the Hockeystick, JohnEEvans
The Whale and the Hockeystick
Powered byPixInsight

The Whale and the Hockeystick

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Description

The Whale Galaxy (NGC4631) is a barred spiral galaxy about 25 million light-years away in Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). It is interacting gravitationally with a dwarf elliptical galaxy (NGC 4627, also called the Pup Galaxy) which can be seen just below the Whale in the image.The Whale Galaxy appears edge-on to us but still reveals a bright, luminous centre with a very dusty disc. The centre is so bright because of the tremendous light coming from newborn stars along with the heating of cosmic gas by stellar explosions known as supernovae.

The Whale is about the same size are our own Milky Way galaxy.

The Whale's companion, the Hockeystick Galaxy (NGC4656), is another barred spiral galaxy that has been significantly warped by gravitational interaction with the Whale its Pup.

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The Whale and the Hockeystick, JohnEEvans