NGC 4753-tHE sWARM

This is one of the only color amateur images so far that show it all its glory. Looks like a swarm of flying insects.

NGC 4753 is a lenticular galaxy located about 60 million light-years away in the constellation of Virgo. NGC 4753 was discovered by astronomer William Herschel on February 22, 1784. It is notable for having distinct dust lanes that surround its nucleus. The galaxy is a member of the Virgo II Groups, an extension of the Virgo Cluster.

The distribution of dust in NGC 4753 lies in an inclined disk wrapped several times around the nucleus. The material in the disk may have been accreted from the merger of gas rich dwarf galaxy. Over several orbital periods, the accreted material eventually smeared out into a disk. Differential precession that occurred after the accretion event caused the disk to twist. Eventually, the disk settled into a fixed orientation with respect to the galaxy. The age of the disk is estimated to be around half a billion to a billion years.

Data from El Sauce, Chile 17” Planewave CDK

LRGBHA - 440,300,300,300,300