Spiral Galaxy NGC 1232 in Eridanus | ESO

Spiral Galaxy NGC 1232 in Eridanus | ESO

The striking, large spiral galaxy NGC 1232, and its distorted companion shaped like the Greek letter "theta". The pair is located roughly 60 million light-years away in the constellation Eridanus (The River). Billions of stars and dark dust are caught up in this beautiful gravitational swirl. The blue spiral arms with their many young stars and star-forming regions make a striking contrast with the yellow-reddish core of older stars. NGC 1232 was discovered by German-British astronomer William Herschel on October 20, 1784.

This image is based on data acquired with the 1.5 m Danish telescope at the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile, through three filters (B: 900 s, V: 400 s, R: 400 s).

Credit: ESO/IDA/Danish 1.5 m/R.Gendler and A. Hornstrup.

Release Date: Dec. 3, 2009

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