NGC 4631: The Whale
noirlab_noao-n4631vickery April 3rd, 2014
Credit: KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/John Vickery and Jim Matthes/Adam Block
NGC 4631 (The Whale Galaxy) is an enormous Sc type spiral galaxy seen edge-on. The galaxy is apparently distorted slightly due to the companion galaxy, NGC 4627. The pair together are included in the Arp Catalog of Peculiar galaxies as ARP 281. This group of galaxies is between 25-30 million light years away. Note faint tidal tails between these two galaxies.Out of the field of view to the southeast (down and left) is the companion galaxy NGC 4656, which shows significant distortions, apparently due to tidal interactions with NGC 4631; detailed surveys of the region have shown that a tenuous bridge of hydrogen gas connects the two, indicating this past history of interaction. This image was taken as part of Advanced Observing Program (AOP) program at Kitt Peak Visitor Center during 2014.
Provider: NOIRLab
Image Source: https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noao-n4631vickery/
Curator: NSF's NOIRLab, Tucson, AZ, USA
Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
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Full Size Image
(1966 x 1325)
Source TIFF (3.07 MB)
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- 320 x 215 (29.1 KB)
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Image Details
Position Details
Color Mapping
- ID
- noao-n4631vickery
- Subject Category
- Subject Name
- NGC 4631
- Credits
- KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/John Vickery and Jim Matthes/Adam Block
- Release Date
- 2014-04-03T12:34:54
- Lightyears
- Redshift
- Reference Url
- https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noao-n4631vickery/
- Type
- Observation
- Image Quality
- Distance Notes
- Facility
- Visitor Center 0.5-meter Telescope, Visitor Center 0.5-meter Telescope, Visitor Center 0.5-meter Telescope, Visitor Center 0.5-meter Telescope
- Instrument
- Other CCD, Other CCD, Other CCD, Other CCD
- Color Assignment
- Luminosity, Blue, Green, Red
- Band
- Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
- Bandpass
- Broad Band, B, G, R
- Central Wavelength
- 555, 438, 475, 625
- Start Time
- Integration Time
- Dataset ID
- None, None, None, None
- Notes
- Coordinate Frame
- ICRS
- Equinox
- J2000
- Reference Value
- 190.546623581, 32.6048041123
- Reference Dimension
- 1966.0, 1325.0
- Reference Pixel
- 571.082550049, 1142.60697174
- Scale
- -0.00010451945623, 0.000104951116465
- Rotation
- 29.323592171597
- Coordinate System Projection:
- TAN
- Quality
- Full
- FITS Header
- Notes
- Creator (Curator)
- NSF's NOIRLab
- URL
- https://noirlab.edu
- Name
- Telephone
- Address
- 950 North Cherry Ave.
- City
- Tucson
- State/Province
- AZ
- Postal Code
- 85719
- Country
- USA
- Rights
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
- Publisher
- NSF's NOIRLab
- Publisher ID
- noirlab
- Resource ID
- noao-n4631vickery
- Resource URL
- http://noirlab.edu/public/media/archives/images/original/noao-n4631vickery.tif
- Related Resources
- Metadata Date
- 2021-08-30T16:40:08+02:00
- Metadata Version
- 1.1
Detailed color mapping information coming soon...
