| NGC 4038/9 - The Antennae Galaxies Constellation: Corvus (The Crow), Equatorial 2000: RA: 12h 01m 53s Dec: -18°51'52" Distance: 45 million light years, Visual Magnitude: 10.3, Surface Brightness: 12.1, Size: 3.4 x 1.7 arc mins Transits at the end of twilight at 6:48pm 14th June, elevation 77 degrees, due North |
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The Antennae are undergoing a galactic collision. These two galaxies are known as the 'Antennae' because two long tails of stars, gas and dust thrown out of the galaxies as a result of the collision resemble the antennae of an insect (not visible in my image - see below from wikipedia). The nuclei of the two galaxies are joining to become one giant galaxy  |
| About 1.2 billion years ago, the Antennae were two separate galaxies. NGC 4038 was a spiral galaxy and NGC 4039 was a barred spiral galaxy. Before the galaxies collided, NGC 4039 was larger than NGC 4038. About 900 million years ago, the Antennae began to approach one another. 600 million years ago, the Antennae passed through each other. 300 million years ago, the Antennae's stars began to be released from both galaxies. Today the two streamers of ejected stars extend far beyond the original galaxies, making the antennae shape. Within 400 million years, the Antennae's nuclei will collide and become a single core with stars, gas, and dust around it. Observations and simulations of colliding galaxies suggest that the Antennae Galaxies will eventually form an elliptical galaxy. |
| - Imaged on 20090429 - 25.4cm 10" F/4.7 Newtonian Reflector - 100 video frames, no filter at x 128 integration - Bahtinov focusing mask - 0.6 focal reducer, rough polar alignment, elevation about 50 degrees - aligned, stacked in Registax with no optimisation - processed in Photoshop 7.0 |