NGC 1316 (also known as Fornax A) is a lenticular galaxy (type S0) about 60 million light years away in the constellation Fornax.
It is a radio galaxy and at 1400 MHz is the fourth-brightest radio source in the sky, after Cygnus A, Centaurus A and M87.
The 'small' galaxy on the right is NGC 1317, a barred spiral galaxy similar in size to the Milky Way. It appears to be interacting with the much larger NGC 1316 but uncertainty in distance estimates and scales of tidal distortions make this uncertain.
(source
wikipedia).
Exposure and processing:
In the optical image an outer galaxy arm of NGC 1316 is visible (left). This arm was so dim that I switched from 180s exposures to 300s to increase the SNR.
Other images here on AB show NGC 1316 as a white / yellowish galaxy. But color calibrating (SPCC) it as type S0 galaxy reveals a light blue color that, from my understanding, should be more appropriate.
Longer exposures helped for the fainter details but fully saturated the stars; thanks to
@Piet Vanneste, who provided the stars from an image covering more or less the same field of view, I was able to show more colorful stars.
Radio Source Overlay:
The image overlay shows radio plasma ejected through multiple episodes of nuclear activity in Fornax A as seen with MeerKAT.
Radio image adapted from
Maccagni et al. (2020), Radio image credit:
Maccagni, SARAO e INAF.
From the MeerKAT Fornax Survey webiste linked above:
"Fornax A is one of the most fascinating radio sources in the local Universe because of its filamentary extended radio lobes, reaching ~ 500,000 light years from the galaxy centre. To the south of the galaxy, a 'bridge' of radio synchrotron emission connects the two lobes. In the centre, two small jets are embedded in the stellar body of the galaxy. For the first time we have been able to measure the timescale of the formation of the radio lobes and jets, finding that the nuclear activity of Fornax A is rapidly flickering. Multiple episodes of activity, the last of which ended 12 million years ago, must have formed the giant radio lobes. The jets in the centre are the remnant of a more recent activity episode, ended less than 3 million years ago. Currently, the galaxy core may be in a new active phase."
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