The Needle Galaxy NGC4565

[Laurin Dave]

Imaged last night from Berkshire through my Esprit150/SX46 (6hrs lum) and Esprit100/ASI1600 (2hrs each RGB). processed in APP, Pixinsight and Photoshop.  

NGC 4565 is an edge-on spiral galaxy about 30 to 50 million light-years away in the constellation Coma Berenices, it is estimated to be140000 light years in diameter and contain a trillion stars.  It lies close to the North Galactic Pole and has a visual magnitude of approximately 10. It is known as the Needle Galaxy for its narrow profile. It was first recorded by William Herschel in 1785.

Also in the frame are NGC 4562 a barred spiral galaxy (also known as NGC4565a) and elliptical galaxy NGC4555 plus many smaller and more distant galaxies.

NGC 4555 is a solitary elliptical galaxy about 125,000 light-years across, and about 310 million light years distant. Observations by the Chandra X-ray Observatory have shown it to be surrounded by a halo of hot gas about 400000 light years across. The hot gas has a temperature of around 10,000,000 deg C. The galaxy is one of the few elliptical galaxies proven to have significant amounts of dark matter. Large amounts of dark matter are necessary to prevent the gas from escaping the galaxy; the visible mass clearly is not large enough to hold such an extensive gas halo. The dark matter halo is estimated to have 10 times the mass of the stars in the galaxy.

NGC 4555 is also important because of its isolation. Most elliptical galaxies are found in the cores of groups and clusters of galaxies, and almost all those for which dark matter estimates are available are located in the centres of these larger systems. In these circumstances it impossible to know whether the dark matter is associated with the galaxy or the surrounding cluster. NGC 4555, as a field galaxy is not part of any group or cluster, and therefore provides strong evidence that dark matter can be associated with individual ellipticals.  Despite being isolated, NGC 4555 is part of the Coma Supercluster. (Source Wiki)

Thanks for looking 

Dave

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by Laurin Dave

[alan potts]

That is very nice indeed Dave, very nice. There are a lot of galaxies in that capture.

Alan

[gorann]

Excellent image Dave! I like everything, including the framing.