NGC 3166/9
NGC 3166 (lower right) and NGC 3169 (upper left) are two spiral galaxies trapped in a death spiral. As these two galaxies begin to merge, they are starting to be pulled apart. The faint wisps surrounding NGC 3169 are its outer spiral arms being pulled off. Eventually these two galaxies will merge to form a single galaxy. NGC 3165, the small galaxy below NGC 3166, is also a member of this group. NGC 2146 (also in this gallery) is likely a snapshot of what these galaxies will look like in about a billion years.
| Observatory: | Kitt Peak National Observatory Kitt Peak, Arizona |
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| Telescope: | KPNO 4-Meter |
| Instrument: | Mosaic I |
| Astronomer: | T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF) |
| Date of Observation: | 04-06-2010 |
| Filters and Assigned Colors: | B (blue), V (green), I (orange) and Hydrogen-Alpha (red) |
| Exposure Times: | 5x20min in B, 5x15min in V, 5x10min in I, and 5x15min in H-alpha |
| Location of Image: | Sextans |
| Field of View: | 22.8 x 19.5 arcmin |
| Orientation: | Rotated clockwise 30 degrees from north is up, east is to the left |
| Link to Larger Image | |
| Link to Full Resolution Image | |
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