Spiral Galaxy NGC 4319 and Quasar Markarian 205
About This Image
Caption
Appearances can be deceiving. In this NASA Hubble Space Telescope image, an odd celestial duo, the spiral galaxy NGC 4319 [center] and a quasar called Markarian 205 [upper right], appear to be neighbors. In reality, the two objects don't even live in the same city. They are separated by time and space.
NGC 4319 is 80 million light-years from Earth. Markarian 205 (Mrk 205) is more than 14 times farther away, residing 1 billion light-years from Earth. The apparent close alignment of Mrk 205 and NGC 4319 is simply a matter of chance. Astronomers used two methods to determine the distances to these objects. First, they measured how their light has been stretched in space due to the universe's expansion. Then they measured how much the ultraviolet light from Mrk 205 dimmed as it passed through the interstellar gas of NGC 4319.
The Hubble image shows the inner region of NGC 4319. In addition to the galaxy's inner spiral arms, an outer arm is faintly visible at lower left. The unusually dark and misshapen dust lanes in the galaxy's inner region are evidence of a disturbance, probably caused by an earlier interaction with another galaxy, NGC 4291, which is not in the photograph.
At a distance of 1 billion light-years, Mrk 205 is a relatively nearby quasar. Many quasars reside much farther away. Quasars, once known only as mysterious point-like objects, are now known to be distant galaxies that have extremely bright cores. These powerhouses of light are probably fueled by massive black holes. With powerful telescopes like Hubble, it is often possible to see the quasar's surrounding halo of faint starlight, as is clearly visible around Mrk 205.
Mrk 205 has a companion, a compact galaxy just below it. The objects appear to be interacting. The compact galaxy may be responsible for the structure in Mrk 205's halo.
The Hubble image shows that interacting galaxies and disturbances within galaxies are a rich source of information about galaxy structure and evolution.
Credits
NASA and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA);Acknowledgment: R. Knacke (Penn State Erie)
Keywords
| About The Object | |
|---|---|
| Object Name | NGC 4319 and Markarian 205, Mrk205 |
| Object Description | Barred Spiral Galaxy and Quasar Galaxy with Companion |
| R.A. Position | 12h 21m 44.11s |
| Dec. Position | 75° 18' 38.0" |
| Constellation | Draco |
| Distance | To NGC 4319: 80 million light-years (25 million parsecs). To Mrk 205: 1,100 million light-years (340 million parsecs) |
| Dimensions | This image is roughly 1.8 arcminutes across. At the distance of NGC 4319, this corresponds to approximately 43,000 light-years (13 kiloparsecs). |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description | Hubble Heritage Team: K. Noll, H. Bond, C. Christian, L. Frattare, F. Hamilton, J. Lee, Z. Levay, E. Masiello, P. Royle (STScI), and T. Borders (Sonoma State, CA) R. Knacke (Penn State Erie) B. Boyle (AAO), D. Schade (CADC) Note: This data was created with HST images taken by the Hubble Heritage Team and archival data of NGC 4319 taken by B. Boyle and D. Shade (HST proposal 6361) |
| Instrument | HST>WFPC2 |
| Exposure Dates | March 10, 1997; February 26, 2002, Exposure Time: 1.4 hours |
| Filters | F439W (B), F555W (V), F814W (I) |
| About The Image | |
| Compass Image |  |
| 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. |
| Dimensions | The physical size of the object or the apparent angle it subtends on the sky. |
| About The Data | |
| Data Description |
|
| 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. |
| About The Image | |
| Image Credit | The primary individuals and institutions responsible for the content. |
| Publication Date | The date and time the release content became public. |
| Color Info | A brief description of the methods used to convert telescope data into the color image being presented. |
| Orientation | The rotation of the image on the sky with respect to the north pole of the celestial sphere. |