NGC 1398

NGC 1398 Why do some spiral galaxies have a ring around the center? Spiral galaxy NGC 1398 not only has a ring of pearly stars, gas and dustt around its center, but a bar of stars and gas across its center, and spiral arms that appear like ribbons farther out.This image from El Sauce Chile shows the grand spiral galaxy in impressive detail. NGC 1398 lies about 65 million light years distant, meaning the light we see today left this galaxy when dinosaurs were disappearing from Earth. The photogenic galaxy is visible with a small telescope toward the southern constellation of the Furnace (Fornax). The ring near the center is likely an expanding density wave of star formation, caused either by a gravitational wave from a passing galaxy, or by the galaxy’s own gravitational asymmetries. The image was done by Michael Adler using data from Rio Hurtado Chile using a 24″ CDK24 telescope. The considerable details in the inner galaxy was brought out using BlurX, and Topaz DeNoise was used to reduce the noise in the outer galaxy.