Elliptical Galaxy NGC 474 & Spiral Galaxy NGC 470 | Victor Blanco Telescope

Elliptical Galaxy NGC 474 & Spiral Galaxy NGC 470 | Victor Blanco Telescope

Elliptical galaxies are generally characterized by their relatively smooth appearance when compared with spiral galaxies (one is to the left). Ellipticals have more flocculent structures interwoven with dust lanes and spiral arms. NGC 474 is at a distance of about 100 million light-years in the constellation of Pisces. This image shows unusual structures around NGC 474 characterized as tidal tails and shell-like structures made up of hundreds of millions of stars. These features are due to recent mergers (within the last billion years) or close interactions with smaller infalling dwarf galaxies. 

NGC 470 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation Pisces (visible on the left side of the image). Located approximately 91 million light years from Earth, it was discovered by Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel in 1784. This galaxy weakly interacts with elliptical galaxy NGC 474.

This image is an excerpt from the Dark Energy Survey. It is a global collaboration that includes the Department of Energy's (DOE) Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab), the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA), and the National Science Foundation’s NOIRLab. The image was taken with the Dark Energy Camera, fabricated by DOE, on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope.

The 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope was commissioned in 1974. It is a near twin of the Mayall 4-meter telescope on Kitt Peak. In 1995 it was dedicated and named in honor of Puerto Rican astronomer Víctor Manuel Blanco. It is also part of the Dark Energy Survey (DES), a visible and near-infrared survey that aims to probe the dynamics of the expansion of the Universe.

Víctor M. Blanco Telescope:

https://noirlab.edu/science/programs/ctio/telescopes/victor-blanco-4m-telescope 

Credit: DES/DOE/Fermilab/NCSA & CTIO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA 

Acknowledgments: Image processing: DES, Jen Miller (Gemini Observatory/NSF's NOIRLab), Travis Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage), Mahdi Zamani & Davide de Martin

Release Date: Jan. 14, 2021

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