NGC 6744 Galaxy
NGC 6744 in Pavo
likely resembles our Milky Way, and is one of its largest and closest neighbors. At 30,000,000 light years distance, it is approximately twice the diameter of our own galaxy. Its flocculent (fluffy) arms are rife with pink, HII star forming knots. This data set from 2014, is the second I have processed from the SSRO archive. I dedicate this image to the late Tammy Plotner, who passed away at much too young an age. She was a great friend to astronomy, and a supporter of mine. May you go among the imperishable stars!
LARGE
likely resembles our Milky Way, and is one of its largest and closest neighbors. At 30,000,000 light years distance, it is approximately twice the diameter of our own galaxy. Its flocculent (fluffy) arms are rife with pink, HII star forming knots. This data set from 2014, is the second I have processed from the SSRO archive. I dedicate this image to the late Tammy Plotner, who passed away at much too young an age. She was a great friend to astronomy, and a supporter of mine. May you go among the imperishable stars!
LARGE
In this crop of a lower resolution but wider field of view, we can see the gravitationally distorted companion galaxy, NGC 6744a
with an apparent star stream from the larger galaxy bridging the gap between the two.
Many thanks to Jim McKay for acquiring and preprocessing this data!
with an apparent star stream from the larger galaxy bridging the gap between the two.
Many thanks to Jim McKay for acquiring and preprocessing this data!