Tuesday, May 3, 2022

NGC 3746--A Puzzling Spiral Galaxy

 NGC 3746 is a very large (in size, not in angular diameter as seen from Earth) spiral galaxy. It has some puzzling characteristics. The inner core is some 2-3x10^11 solar masses in size. The outer regions, some 41 kiloparsecs in diameter, are moving at velocities that are incompatible with circular motion. The research suggests that this outer region may be in a state of rapid evolution. Below is a heavily cropped image of the galaxy and an annotated image of the wider field captured.




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16 hour integration of the Heart Nebula with the Dwarf 3 telescope

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