#ngc 4302

[quiltofstars]

NGC 4302 (right) and NGC 4298 (center) // Paul Richardson

[beauty-funny-trippy]

The edge-on galaxy is NGC 4302, galaxy on the right is NGC 4298. They are both 55 million light-years away, reside in the constellation Coma Berenices, and were discovered in 1784 by William Herschel. ~Credits: NASA, ESA, and M. Mutchler (STScI)

[chibinotan]

Wide-Field Duo

[spinningblueball]

NGC 4302 and NGC 4298

[cosmicvastness]

NGC 4302 and NGC 4298 

Seen edge-on, spiral galaxy NGC 4302 (left) lies about 55 million light-years away in the well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. A member of the large Virgo Galaxy Cluster, it spans some 87,000 light-years, a little smaller than our own Milky Way. Like the Milky Way, NGC 4302's prominent dust lanes cut along the center of the galactic plane, obscuring and reddening the starlight from our perspective. Smaller companion galaxy NGC 4298 is also a dusty spiral. But tilted more nearly face-on to our view, NGC 4298 can show off dust lanes along spiral arms traced by the bluish light of young stars, as well as its bright yellowish core. In celebration of the 27th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990, astronomers used the legendary telescope to take this gorgeous visible light portrait of the contrasting galaxy pair.

Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Mutchler (STScI)

[alxndrasplace]

(Hubblesite)  Spiral galaxies are pancake-shaped collections of billions of stars, along with vast clouds of gas and dust. This video illustrates how their observed shapes can differ greatly depending upon the angle at which they are observed. The spiral galaxies NGC 4302 (left) and NGC 4298 (right) are visualized in three dimensions and rotated to showcase how they might look if viewed from other perspectives. Each galaxy could be seen as a roughly circular face-on spiral, as a long, thin, edge-on spiral, or as any of the oblong shapes in between.The galaxy models are based on observations by the Hubble and Spitzer space telescopes, as well as on the statistical properties of galaxies. Because NGC 4302 is seen nearly edge on, and its structure is not well-defined, its model was based upon observations of the spiral galaxy Messier 51.

Credits: NASA, ESA, F. Summers, J. DePasquale, Z. Levay, and G. Bacon (STScI)

Source

[astrosource]

Seen edge-on, spiral galaxy NGC 4302 (left) lies about 55 million light-years away in the well-groomed constellation Coma Berenices. A member of the large Virgo Galaxy Cluster, it spans some 87,000 light-years, a little smaller than our own Milky Way. Like the Milky Way, NGC 4302's prominent dust lanes cut along the center of the galactic plane, obscuring and reddening the starlight from our perspective. Smaller companion galaxy NGC 4298 is also a dusty spiral. But tilted more nearly face-on to our view, NGC 4298 can show off dust lanes along spiral arms traced by the bluish light of young stars, as well as its bright yellowish core. In celebration of the 27th anniversary of the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope on April 24, 1990, astronomers used the legendary telescope to take this gorgeous visible light portrait of the contrasting galaxy pair. △

APOD: Apr. 21, 2017

[fishstickmonkey]

NGC 4302 and NGC 4298

(via A sea of galaxies | ESA/Hubble)