Oct 22, 2025
Fornax A (NGC 1316, center) and NGC 1317 (top) // vikas chander
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Fornax A (NGC 1316, center) and NGC 1317 (top) // vikas chander
NGC 1317
Quiet Interaction
NGC 1316 & NGC 1317
NGC 1316 and NGC 1317
NGC 1316 and NGC 1317 are a pair of interacting galaxy located about 60 million light years away towards the constellation Fornax, the Furnace. NGC 1316 is one of the brightest elliptical galaxies in the Fornax galaxy cluster, and one of the strongest and largest radio sources visible from Earth.
While NGC 1317 is a small spiral galaxy with an apparently uneventful history, NGC 1316 appears to have had a turbulent life. Around the galaxy are tidal tails, stars and other bits ripped away from smaller galaxies and mixed up by strong gravitational forces. NGC 1316 also contains unusual dust lanes and small globular clusters, suggesting the annexation of a spiral galaxy some 3 billion years ago.
Image and information from ESO.
(NASA) NGC 1316: After Galaxies Collide
Image Credit & Copyright: Steve Mazlin, Warren Keller, and Steve Menaker (SSRO / UNC / PROMPT / CTIO)
An example of violence on a cosmic scale, enormous elliptical galaxy NGC 1316 lies about 75 million light-years away toward Fornax, the southern constellation of the Furnace. Investigating the startling sight, astronomers suspect the giant galaxy of colliding with smaller neighbor NGC 1317 seen just above, causing far-flung loops and shells of stars. Light from their close encounter would have reached Earth some 100 million years ago. In the deep, sharp image, the central regions of NGC 1316 and NGC 1317 appear separated by over 100,000 light-years. Complex dust lanes visible within also indicate that NGC 1316 is itself the result of a merger of galaxies in the distant past. Found on the outskirts of the Fornax galaxy cluster, NGC 1316 is known as Fornax A. One of the visually brightest of the Fornax cluster galaxies it is one of the strongest and largest radio sources with radio emission extending well beyond this telescopic field-of-view, over several degrees on the sky.
Fornax A (NGC 1316, center) and NGC 1317 (top) // 文飞 刘
Fornax A (NGC 1316) // Sebastian Marchi