NGC 3981 “Dust In the Wind”

This beautiful galaxy looks to be blowing in the wind, the spiral arms appears stretched out and misshapen, possibly due to an encounter with another galaxy at some time in the distant past.

NGC 3981 is about 65 million light years from Earth, but even at that great distance it is considered a neighbor of our own galaxy, the Milky Way. The large stars in the image’s foreground are stars in the Milky Way. Because NGC 3981 is inclined towards Earth, astronomers are able to look right into the center of the galaxy. The bright center of the galaxy is dominated by a super-massive black hole (SMBH). The image shows the vast and delicate-looking spiral arms of the galaxy, which are star-forming regions full of dust. The disc itself is lit up with a host of hot young stars. The 2 galaxies on the left are PGC 375662 and 37566 I looked and could not fine much on them.

Imaged in LRGB with 2-24”CDK telescopes from  Observatorio El Sauce, Chile.

Image Processing: Mark Hanson

Data: Martin Pugh and Mark Hanson

Enjoy,

Mark