Celestial hemisphere:  Southern  ·  Constellation: Fornax (For)  ·  Contains:  Fornax A  ·  Fornax B  ·  NGC 1310  ·  NGC 1316  ·  NGC 1317

Image of the day 11/01/2020

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    NGC 1316 Fornax A & friends, Patrick Dufour
    NGC 1316 Fornax A & friends
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    NGC 1316 Fornax A & friends

    Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

    Image of the day 11/01/2020

    Getting plate-solving status, please wait...
      NGC 1316 Fornax A & friends, Patrick Dufour
      NGC 1316 Fornax A & friends
      Powered byPixInsight

      NGC 1316 Fornax A & friends

      Acquisition type: Electronically-Assisted Astronomy (EAA, e.g. based on a live video feed)

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      Description

      Very interesting galaxies group, the main lenticular galaxy Fornax A, is at about 80 million light-years away in the constellation Fornax and is host to a powerful radio source, exhibiting characteristic jet structure on small scales and diffuse lobes on larger scales.

      In this image, looking more closely at Fornax A, ripples in the galaxy disk is thought to be caused by a recent intruder rather than by any of the present neighbors. The innermost non concentric ripples indicate a short-lived disequilibrium that they must have formed recently.

      Modeling and then subtracting the starlight seen in the Spitzer images, the scientists were able to reveal excess dust emission around the nuclear region, and moreover show that the dust lies in two irregular arcs sweeping across about ten thousand light-years.

      When combined with X-ray and radio information for the same locations, however, the dust enabled the astronomers to construct a more complete picture of what is going on. Most likely the galaxy collided about 400 million years ago with a gas-rich neighbor -- one having 2-3 times the gas in Fornax A itself -- but with many fewer stars (perhaps only 10%). The dust comes from the neighboring galaxy; the collision also helped to funnel gas from the neighbor and trigger the outburst from the black hole.

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      NGC 1316 Fornax A & friends, Patrick Dufour

      In these public groups

      Astroimaging from Chile
      Astro-Québec