NGC 7727’s spectacular galactic dance as seen by the VLT

Eso_eso2211a_1024

eso_eso2211a August 16th, 2022

Credit: ESO

The galaxy NGC 7727 was born from the merger of two galaxies that started around a billion years ago. The cosmic dance of the two galaxies has resulted in the spectacular wispy shape of NGC 7727. At the heart of the galaxy, two supermassive black holes are spiralling closer to each other, expected to merge within 250 million years, the blink of an eye in astronomical time. This image of NGC 7727 was captured by the FOcal Reducer and low dispersion Spectrograph 2 (FORS2) instrument at ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT). 

Provider: European Southern Observatory

Image Source: https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2211a/

Curator: European Southern Observatory, Garching bei München, None, Germany

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
NGC 7727
Subject - Local Universe
Galaxy > Type > Interacting
Eso_eso2211a_128
 

Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 23h 39m 54.2s
DEC = -12° 17’ 33.0”
Orientation
North is 0.3° CCW
Field of View
7.2 x 7.2 arcminutes
Constellation
Aquarius

Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red VLT (FORS2) Optical (R) 655.0 nm
Green VLT (FORS2) Optical (V) 557.0 nm
Blue VLT (FORS2) Optical (B) 440.0 nm
Spectrum_base
Red
Green
Blue
Eso_eso2211a_1280
×
ID
eso2211a
Subject Category
C.5.1.7  
Subject Name
NGC 7727
Credits
ESO
Release Date
2022-08-16T14:00:00
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://www.eso.org/public/images/eso2211a/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
Facility
Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope, Very Large Telescope
Instrument
FORS2, FORS2, FORS2
Color Assignment
Red, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
R, V, B
Central Wavelength
655, 557, 440
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None
Notes
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
354.975906018, -12.2924955351
Reference Dimension
1724.0, 1714.0
Reference Pixel
862.0, 857.0
Scale
-6.99609838493e-05, 6.99609838493e-05
Rotation
0.32000000000000006
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
Creator (Curator)
European Southern Observatory
URL
https://www.eso.org
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
Karl-Schwarzschild-Strasse 2
City
Garching bei München
State/Province
None
Postal Code
D-85748
Country
Germany
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
European Southern Observatory
Publisher ID
eso
Resource ID
eso2211a
Metadata Date
2022-07-26T14:56:07+02:00
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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