I'm delighted to present this image of the galaxy NGC 1365, a large barred spiral located 74 million light-years away in the constellation of the Furnace: it's quite simply my favourite galaxy!

The data was acquired by Mike Selby (@Mike Selby) with a dream setup (1m telescope from Chile).

Mike very kindly agreed to send me these data so that I could process them, something I'd been dreaming of doing for a long time on this object!
Many thanks to him!

At around 200,000 light-years long, this galaxy is almost twice the size of our own Milky Way!

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This image was awarded by NASA APOD (1st February 2024): https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240201.html
Cette image a été primée par l'APOD (1er février 2024) : https://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap240201.html

APOD explanation: Barred spiral galaxy NGC 1365 is truly a majestic island universe some 200,000 light-years across. Located a mere 60 million light-years away toward the faint but heated constellation Fornax, NGC 1365 is a dominant member of the well-studied Fornax Cluster of galaxies. This sharp color image shows the intense, reddish star forming regions near the ends of the galaxy's central bar and along its spiral arms. Seen in fine detail, obscuring dust lanes cut across the galaxy's bright core. At the core lies a supermassive black hole. Astronomers think NGC 1365's prominent bar plays a crucial role in the galaxy's evolution, drawing gas and dust into a star-forming maelstrom and ultimately feeding material into the central black hole.

La galaxie spirale barrée NGC 1365 est une majestueuse île-univers de quelque 200 000 années-lumière de diamètre. Située à seulement 60 millions d'années-lumière de nous en direction de la constellation du Fourneau, NGC 1365 est un membre dominant de l'amas de galaxies du Fourneau. Cette image couleur très nette révèle les régions de formation d'étoiles intenses et rougeâtres près des extrémités de la barre centrale de la galaxie et le long de ses bras spiraux. Dans les moindres détails, des couloirs de poussière traversent le noyau lumineux de la galaxie. Au coeur de la galaxie se trouve un trou noir supermassif. Les astronomes pensent que la barre centrale de NGC 1365 joue un rôle crucial dans l'évolution de la galaxie, en attirant le gaz et la poussière dans un maelström de formation d'étoiles et en alimentant finalement son trou noir central.