Starship Asterisk*

NGC 2442: Galaxy in Volans

Explanation: Distorted galaxy NGC 2442 can be found in the southern constellation of the flying fish, (Piscis) Volans. Located about 50 million light-years away, the galaxy's two spiral arms extending from a pronounced central bar give it a hook-shaped appearance in this deep colorful image, with spiky foreground stars scattered across the telescopic field of view. The image also reveals the distant galaxy's obscuring dust lanes, young blue star clusters and reddish star forming regions surrounding a core of yellowish light from an older population of stars. But the star forming regions seem more concentrated along the drawn-out (upper right) spiral arm. The distorted structure is likely the result of an ancient close encounter with the smaller galaxy seen near the top left of the frame. The two interacting galaxies are separated by about 150,000 light-years at the estimated distance of NGC 2442.

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Very nice image! I'll talk about it later, when (if) I have some time.

I note that the "Discuss" link still doesn't work, and no larger version of today's APOD is available.

Ann

Ann wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 6:38 am
...and no larger version of the today's APOD is available.
Ann

Congratulation. Great image!

A zoomable version can be found under this link:
https://nicolasillustrations.com/projec ... 442-halrgb

Ann wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 6:38 am I note that the "Discuss" link still doesn't work, and no larger version of today's APOD is available.

The Discuss link works fine, it's just pointed at the wrong date (230402).

I wonder if the feeling of a warped disk here is true.
The feeling is strong; it's backed by the haze of the stellar core and halo and by backlighted dust lanes

So; does the galaxy tend to pull it's self back together over time?

Hello,
thanks for the great picture.
The distance between the two galaxies
(I suppose the second one could be pgc21457?)
was mentioned with 150.000 light years.
On Wikipedia I read that the diameter of NGC 2442
is around 120.000 light years.
Therefore 150.000 lys seem very few.
OK I'm not at all an expert, but the
visual impression seems to be a much
greater distance.
Regards, A.F.

Guest wrote: ↑Sat Apr 01, 2023 4:10 pm Hello,
thanks for the great picture.
The distance between the two galaxies
(I suppose the second one could be pgc21457?)
was mentioned with 150.000 light years.
On Wikipedia I read that the diameter of NGC 2442
is around 120.000 light years.
Therefore 150.000 lys seem very few.
OK I'm not at all an expert, but the
visual impression seems to be a much
greater distance.
Regards, A.F.

Well, both the size and distance measurements are subject to error, and the size, in particular is notoriously hard to define for galaxies. It depends on how far from the core you go and how many of the stars in the "outskirts" you want to include. For example, which one of these lines most accurately reflects the "size" of the meat hook galaxy:

Rather than interacting with the galaxy at the top left of the picture, NGC2442 itself appears to be the merger of 2 small ancient galaxies now conglomerating as 1, though their adjustment seems to have a long, long way to go!

Elliptical galaxies are like bacteria. They basically all look the same.


But spiral galaxies are like birds, spaceships, pies, kisses, ice skaters, tinker bells and meat hooks. No two ones are the same.



There are just so many amazing spiral galaxies out there! My goodness!

And NGC 2442 is one of them!

Ann