The Spanish Dancer Galaxy: NGC 1566 Twirls into View | NOIRLab

The Spanish Dancer Galaxy: NGC 1566 Twirls into View | NOIRLab

CosmoView 42: This image, taken by astronomers using the U.S. Department of Energy-fabricated Dark Energy Camera at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory, a Program of the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab, captures the galaxy NGC 1566 as it twirls, flinging its arms through the vastness of space. Colloquially nicknamed the Spanish Dancer, this spiral galaxy is often studied by astronomers learning about galaxy groups, stars of different ages, and galactic black holes. 

Distance: 20 million light years

Video Credits: Dark Energy Survey

DOE/FNAL/DECam/CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA)

Image Processing: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage/NSF’s NOIRLab), J. Miller (Gemini Observatory/NSF’s NOIRLab), M. Zamani & D. de Martin (NSF’s NOIRLab)

Duration: 1 minutes, 13 seconds

Release Date: Feb. 25, 2022

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