Hubble Interacting Galaxy ESO 148-2
About This Image
Caption
ESO 148-2 is a beautiful object that resembles an owl in flight. It consists of a pair of former disk galaxies undergoing a collision. The cores of the two individual galaxies - seen at the center of the image - are embedded in hot dust and contain a large number of stars. Two huge wings sweep out from the center and curve in opposite directions. These are tidal tails of stars and gas that have been pulled from the easily distorted disks of the galaxies. This cosmic owl is one of the most luminous infrared galaxies known and is located some 600 million light-years away from Earth.
This image is part of a large collection of 59 images of merging galaxies taken by the Hubble Space Telescope and released on the occasion of its 18th anniversary on 24th April 2008.
About The Object
- Object Name
- ESO 148-2, ESO 148-IG002, AM 2312-591
- Object Description
- Interacting Galaxies
- R.A. Position
- 23h 15m 46.84s
- Dec. Position
- -59° 3' 12.99"
- Constellation
- Tucana
- Distance
- 550 million light-years (200 million parsecs)
About The Data
- Data Description
- HST Proposal: 10592 A. Evans (University of Virginia, Charlottesville/NRAO/Stony Brook University)
- Instrument
- HST>ACS/WFC
- Exposure Dates
- March 21, 2002, Exposure Time: 38 minutes
- Filters
- F435W (B) and F814W (I)
About The Object
- Object Name
- A name or catalog number that astronomers use to identify an astronomical object.
- Object Description
- The type of astronomical object.
- R.A. Position
- Right ascension – analogous to longitude – is one component of an object's position.
- Dec. Position
- Declination – analogous to latitude – is one component of an object's position.
- Constellation
- One of 88 recognized regions of the celestial sphere in which the object appears.
- Distance
- The physical distance from Earth to the astronomical object. Distances within our solar system are usually measured in Astronomical Units (AU). Distances between stars are usually measured in light-years. Interstellar distances can also be measured in parsecs.
About The Data
- Data Description
- Proposal: A description of the observations, their scientific justification, and the links to the data available in the science archive.
- Science Team: The astronomers who planned the observations and analyzed the data. "PI" refers to the Principal Investigator.
- Instrument
- The science instrument used to produce the data.
- Exposure Dates
- The date(s) that the telescope made its observations and the total exposure time.
- Filters
- The camera filters that were used in the science observations.
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