Edge-on Spiral Galaxy NGC 3628 in Leo | Mayall Telescope

Edge-on Spiral Galaxy NGC 3628 in Leo | Mayall Telescope

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the 4-meter Mayall telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. NGC 3628 is a large, edge-on spiral galaxy. It is one of three galaxies in the "Leo Triplet". NGC 3628 has a warped disk and a long tidal tail (the faint blue line stretching to the upper-left corner of the image) that are the result of gravitational interactions with the other two galaxies in the triplet. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), V (green), I (orange) and Hydrogen-Alpha (red) filters. This image is rotated 37 degrees clockwise fron North is up, East is to the left.

The Nicholas U. Mayall Telescope is a four-meter (158 inches) reflector telescope in Arizona named after Nicholas U. Mayall. It saw first light on February 27, 1973, and was the second-largest telescope in the world at that time.

Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)

Release Date: June 30, 2020

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