NGC 7020 in LRGB - a very unusual galaxy with a hexagonal core! (gmadkat)

Celestial hemisphere: Southern · Constellation: Pavo (Pav) · Contains: NGC 7020

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NGC 7020 in LRGB - a very unusual galaxy with a hexagonal core!

Powered byPixInsight

NGC 7020 in LRGB - a very unusual galaxy with a hexagonal core!

NGC 7020 is a lenticular galaxy approximately 149 million light years away in the constellation Pavo.

I find this a particularly fascinating and beautiful galaxy!

NGC 7020 has a large outer ring surrounding a bright inner hexagonal zone containing an inner ring and possibly a bar. The large outer ring is completely detached from the inner hexagonal zone of the galaxy and is dominated by numerous flocculent spiral features. The ring is knotty and has more blue than the rest of the galaxy, and shows where recent star formation is occurring in NGC 7020. The possible inner ring shows protruding features at the ends of its major axis therefore classifying it as a bar, although that is up for debate. The galaxy appears to be fairly free of ionized gas. The structure of NGC 7020 is unusual it has a regular shaped outer ring which is fully detached from the main galaxy. Inside the outer ring is an inner ring with with a hexagon surrounding an X shape. The X shape is unusual to find inside a regular ring, and it is thought that it might be do to a merger or interaction with another galaxy.

Imaged in LRGB on the Planewave CDK 1000 at Observatorio El Sauce, Chile
Image acquisition and preprocessing: Thank you to Mike Selby at throughlightandtime.com

Processed using Pixinsight and Photoshop.

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Status	Advanced success
Started	...
Astrometry.net job	8243184
PixInsight job	Y4NWNCPYMFS4KEFK8ATU4E9O294FJTOK
PixInsight queue size	n/a
PixInsight stage	TASK_LOG

RA (center)	21h11m19s.134
RA (top/left)	21h12m20s.457
RA (top/right)	21h10m42s.566
RA (bottom/right)	21h10m17s.511
RA (bottom/left)	21h11m56s.270

Dec (center)	-64°01′24″.31
Dec (top/left)	-63°57′17″.42
Dec (top/right)	-63°54′37″.36
Dec (bottom/right)	-64°05′29″.69
Dec (bottom/left)	-64°08′10″.81

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NGC 7020 in LRGB - a very unusual galaxy with a hexagonal core!

NGC 7020 in LRGB - a very unusual galaxy with a hexagonal core!

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NGC 7020 in LRGB - a very unusual galaxy with a hexagonal core!

NGC 7020 in LRGB - a very unusual galaxy with a hexagonal core!

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