Galactic Train Wreck
Sig11 005a

Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/L. Lanz (Harvard-Smithsonian CfA)

Observation • May 25th, 2011 • sig11-005a

sig11-005a

This image shows an example of colliding galaxies from a new photo atlas of galactic "train wrecks". The new image combine observations from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, which observes infrared light, and NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) spacecraft, which observes ultraviolet light. By analyzing information from different parts of the light spectrum, scientists can learn much more than from a single wavelength alone, because different components of a galaxy are highlighted.

This image shows NGC 470 (top) and NGC 474 (bottom). In this representative-color image, far-ultraviolet light from GALEX is blue, 3.6-micron light from Spitzer is cyan, 4.5-micron light from Spitzer is green, and red shows light at 5.8 and 8 microns from Spitzer.

About the Object

Name
NGC 470NGC 474Arp 227
Type
Galaxy > Type > Interacting
Galaxy > Type > Spiral
Galaxy > Type > Lenticular
Distance
130,000,000 Light Years
Redshift
0.007919

Color Mapping

Band Wavelength Telescope
UV 150 nm GALEX FUV
Infrared 3.6 µm Spitzer IRAC
Infrared 4.5 µm Spitzer IRAC
Infrared 5.8 µm Spitzer IRAC
Infrared 8.0 µm Spitzer IRAC

Astrometrics

Position (J2000)
RA =1h 19m 57.0s
Dec = 3° 24' 44.5"
Field of View
10.6 x 10.6 arcminutes
Orientation
North is 64.9° right of vertical