A Trick of Perspective - NGC 3314

[nmoushon]

Not sure how many of you saw the article about NGC 3314 on th Hubble site so here it is for reference. Great short article but if you look down under notes you will read that the data the used for the image was from two different people who submitted the same object for the Hubble Hidden Treasure Contest. Andre vd Hoeven (who is also on this forum) and yours truely! I'm not the type of person that likes to boast or likes to be in the spot light but I'm pretty damn stoked about this one! Don't know if Andre wanted to stay anonymous or not so sorry if you did lol, but I think you deserve some applause for your great work.

Here is the way Andre processed the data: http://www.flickr.com/photos/avdhoeven/7054687121/in/pool-1898430@N24/

And here is the way I processed the same data: http://www.flickr.com/photos/68045581@N02/6926228898/in/photostream/

[DirkSteele]

Nice job to both of you. Excellent choice of object(s).

Clear skies

[Gina]

Interesting and nicely processed

[mdstuart]

Amazing image..Another galaxy that is below my observing horizon...

Really special images, thanks for sharing them..

Mark

[Ganymede12]

The detail is superb!

[farunj]

Wow!! Stunning detail!!

[alpal]

That's wonderful work - nice to see more hubble pics processed.

It's amazing to see clear sharp images of galaxies at mag 13.

A good writeup here:

http://cseligman.com.../ngc33.htm#3314

NGC 3314 (= PGC 31531 (= PGC 751405) + PGC 31532)

Discovered (Mar 24, 1835) by John Herschel

An overlapping pair of spiral galaxies in Hydra

PGC 31531 = A 13th-magnitude barred spiral galaxy (type SBab) at RA 10 37 12.7, Dec -27 41 00

PGC 31532 = A 14th-magnitude spiral galaxy (type SA(s)c) at RA 10 37 13.2, Dec -27 41 06

NGC 3314 looks like an interacting pair of galaxies, but is actually an accidental overlapping of two galaxies which just happen to be in the same direction. The unusual alignment of the galaxies allows a more detailed view than usual of the clouds of gas and dust in the foreground galaxy. Normally such clouds are only visible in regions where hot bright stars have recently formed from the clouds, and heat and light them up; but in this case, dusty regions without stellar beacons are outlined by the stars in the background galaxy. In addition, the stars in the background galaxy are substantially dimmed and reddened by the dust lying between us and them. There seems to be a problem with the recessional velocity listed in LEDA and NED for the foreground galaxy. Given their appearance, the more nearly face-on PGC 31532 (NGC 3314B) must lie in front of the more nearly edge-on PGC 31531 (NGC 3314A). But the recessional velocities listed in the two databases are 2850 km/sec for PGC 31531 (corresponding to a distance of about 130 million light years), and 4640 km/sec for PGC 31532 (corresponding to a distance of about 215 million light years), which would put the closer galaxy nearly 100 million light years further away (!). A discussion of an older version of the HST image below agrees that PGC 31532 is indeed the galaxy in front, and gives a distance of about 120 million light years for the nearer galaxy, and 140 million for the more distant one; so the recessional velocity for the closer galaxy appears to be more or less correct, but there is probably something wrong with the value for the more distant one. Presuming the HST distances are correct, the 120 million light year distance of PGC 31531 implies that its 1.6 by 0.4 arcmin apparent size corresponds to about 55 thousand light years; while the 140 million light year distance of PGC 31532 implies that its 0.65 by 0.45 arcmin apparent size corresponds to about 25 thousand light years (this includes the extended region of bright knots and clusters to the southwest; the main galaxy structure is less than 15 thousand light years across). Note: Some references incorrectly list PGC 87327 as the foreground galaxy NGC 3314B; fortunately, they usually list coordinates which do not correspond to the overlapping pair, but to a 14th-magnitude galaxy more than an arcminute to the north (which is indeed PGC 87327, but not NGC 3314B), which makes it relatively easy to spot the error

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Wonderful image. Congrats on having your image selected for this!