NGC 6240 Galaxy in Ophiuchus

This highly disturbed object is the result of a merger between two galaxies,which now results in an ultraluminous IR-object in the constellation of Ophiuchus,named NGC6240.Visually of magntude 12.8mag and with an apparent size of only 2.1´x 1.1´ ,NGC6240 was first seen by  E.J.-M.Stephan in 1871.

Its real distance is about 400 million light-years.In 2013  the supernova-event SN 2013dc has been observed  there.

After having merged,two massive black holes with a distance of 3000 light-years stayed rested in the middle of the remnant.Soon these two will merge to a single black hole,because their distance is too small,to escape from each other.

 

position (epoch2000):

RA.:    16h 52m 58.9s
Decl.: +02° 24′ 03″

 

image data:

LRGB image with L = 22x1200s, RGB = 7x1200s each,a total of 14.4 hours

80cm f/7 AstroOptik Keller corrected cassegrain

FLI Proline 16803 Astrodon LRGB GenII filters

Prompt 7 CTIO/UNC Chile,remote controlled

image processing: Bernd Flach-Wilken

 

this is a 72%-FOV of the CCD-camera.Click here for full resolution.

here you see a larger version of this galaxy:

 

a look to NGC6240 with the HST can be seen here

 

 

Last modified on Saturday, 27 January 2018 18:51

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