Hanson Astronomy Photos

NGC 4410 Galaxy Group

"Explanation by Sakib Rasool"

This rarely photographed region of Virgo contains a vast variety of galaxies. Near the centre is a relatively serene spiral galaxy pair that is collectively known as NGC 4411. Much more striking is the connected system of interacting galaxies to the north, which are collectively catalogued as NGC 4410. Much further in the distance are a few galaxy clusters, most notably Abell 1541 near the bottom left corner. Less apparent and more pervasive are hundreds of fuzzy dots in the background, these are all distant galaxies billions of light years away!

NGC 4410 is a group of interacting galaxies connected by tidal bridges and in addition to this also exhibits tidal tails and plumes. The whole menagerie of morphological features is due to the effect of gravitational interaction between the various galaxies due to their proximity to each other. This group in total contains 12 members and is located 316 million light years away and in the future is likely to merge into a single elliptical galaxy. Interestingly, NGC 4411 is only a visual pair with the galaxy on the left being 91 million light years away while the one on the right is closer with a distance of 49 million light years. Both are members of the Virgo Cluster.

"Stellar Winds Observatory" a/k/a Stan Watson Observatory at Dark Sky New Mexico

Planewave 24" and 17"

SBIG 16803

Planewave H200

LRGB, 1710,655,555,610

59 hours exposure