Hockey Stick Galaxy NGC 4656

Noirlab_noao-ngc4656_1024

noirlab_noao-ngc4656 June 30th, 2020

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

This image was obtained with the wide-field view of the Mosaic camera on the Mayall 4-meter telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory. NGC 4656, also known informally as the "hockey stick galaxy," is a distorted edge-on spiral galaxy. Its distinctive shape is due to a recent gravitational interaction with the galaxy NGC 4631. It is not yet certain, but these two galaxies may be in the early stages of merging. The faint object in the upper-left corner may not be part of the galaxy, but instead be a dwarf galaxy in the process of merging with NGC 4656. The image was generated with observations in the B (blue), V (green), I (orange) and Hydrogen-Alpha (red) filters. In this image, North is up, East is to the left.

Provider: NOIRLab

Image Source: https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noao-ngc4656/

Curator: NSF's NOIRLab, Tucson, AZ, USA

Image Use Policy: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Image Details Image Details

Image Type
Observation
Object Name
Hockey Stick Galaxy NGC 4656
Noirlab_noao-ngc4656_128
 

Position Details Position Details

Position (ICRS)
RA = 12h 43m 45.9s
DEC = 32° 3’ 53.4”
Orientation
North is 179.9° CW
Field of View
13.3 x 17.8 arcminutes
Constellation
Canes Venatici

Color Mapping Details Color Mapping

  Telescope Spectral Band Wavelength
Red KPNO-4m (Mosaic I) Optical (Ha) 656.0 nm
Orange KPNO-4m (Mosaic I) Optical (I) 805.0 nm
Green KPNO-4m (Mosaic I) Optical (V) 537.0 nm
Blue KPNO-4m (Mosaic I) Optical (B) 436.0 nm
None
Spectrum_base
Red
Orange
Green
Blue
Noirlab_noao-ngc4656_1280
×
ID
noao-ngc4656
Subject Category
Subject Name
Hockey Stick Galaxy, NGC 4656
Credits
T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOIRLab/NSF/AURA)
Release Date
2020-06-30T21:33:58.569337
Lightyears
Redshift
Reference Url
https://noirlab.edu/public/images/noao-ngc4656/
Type
Observation
Image Quality
Distance Notes
None
Facility
Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope, Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope, Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope, Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope
Instrument
Mosaic I, Mosaic I, Mosaic I, Mosaic I
Color Assignment
Red, Orange, Green, Blue
Band
Optical, Optical, Optical, Optical
Bandpass
Ha, I, V, B
Central Wavelength
656, 805, 537, 436
Start Time
Integration Time
Dataset ID
None, None, None, None
Notes
N
Coordinate Frame
ICRS
Equinox
J2000
Reference Value
190.9414521, 32.06482014
Reference Dimension
3072.0, 4096.0
Reference Pixel
2158.285095, 523.8942871
Scale
-7.19E-05, 7.23E-05
Rotation
-179.9246864
Coordinate System Projection:
TAN
Quality
Full
FITS Header
Notes
None
Creator (Curator)
NSF's NOIRLab
URL
https://noirlab.edu
Name
Email
Telephone
Address
950 North Cherry Ave.
City
Tucson
State/Province
AZ
Postal Code
85719
Country
USA
Rights
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
Publisher
NSF's NOIRLab
Publisher ID
noirlab
Resource ID
noao-ngc4656
Metadata Date
2024-10-02T11:52:22.280367
Metadata Version
1.1
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Detailed color mapping information coming soon...

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There is no distance meta data in this image.

 

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