A compact group of interacting galaxies in the constellation Virgo imaged by the Dark Energy Camera, the Sorae space portal website

This is RSCG 55, a compact galaxy cluster located about 350 million light-years away in the direction of the constellation Virgo. A galaxy group is a group of up to several tens of galaxies smaller than a galaxy group, and among them is a group of galaxies in which several galaxies are particularly concentrated in a small region called a compact galaxy group.

According to the National Science Foundation's (NSF) National Optical and Infrared Astronomy Laboratory (NOIRLab), which released the image, RSCG 55 is a group of interacting galaxies that influence each other through gravity. Some interacting galaxies have shapes greatly distorted by tidal forces, or have spiral arms that extend like long tails. The tidal bridges connecting the galaxies in the image are also formed by interactions and are composed of stars, gas, and dust. The galaxies connected by this structure are given from the left by the catalog names Z 70-79, IC 790, Mrk 1325B, and NGC 4410.(※).

This image was created based on observational data from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), an observing device mounted on the Blanco 4-meter telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. As its name suggests, DECam is a monitoring device developed for the main purpose of searching for dark energy. It has a resolution of about 520 megapixels and an area equivalent to about 14 full moons (3 square degrees) that you can shoot at once. Observations for the original purpose of dark energy research were conducted from 2013 to 2019.

The first image was published by NOIRLab on May 22, 2024.

*…galaxies are given different names in each catalogue, so the same galaxy may be named multiple times (for example, “M31”, “NGC 224”, and “LEDA 2557” all refer to the “Andromeda Galaxy”). Maso). Here, we consolidate the names listed in the basic data section of the Strasbourg Center for Astronomical Data database “SIMBAD”.

source

• NOIRLab – A zoo of intertwined galaxies

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