This image of The Whale (NGC 4631) and the Hockey Stick (NGC 4656) Galaxies located in the constellation Canes Venatici was taken at at the Fort Worth Astronomical Society Dark Site (Bortle 3). NGC 4631 is the larger and brighter of the two primary galaxies in this image, it is located about 30 Million Light years from Earth. NGC 4631 (Whale) galaxy has a wedge-shaped form that resembles a whale, thus its name; there is a companion dwarf elliptical galaxy, NGC 4627, nearby. This is a rare occurrence of a of a double galaxy and is found in the Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies produced by Alton Harp and published by The California Institute of Technology in 1966.
The Atlas of Peculiar GalaxiesNGC 4656, the Hockey Stick is also known as the Crowbar Galaxy, is a highly warped barred spiral galaxy. Its distinctive shape is due to "recent" gravitational interaction with NGC 4631. The "hook" of the galaxy is also listed as its own object, NGC 4657. Beyond the hook is a fuzzy patch which may be a dwarf elliptical galaxy that is merging with NGC 4656.
Comments